British law enforcement has reason to believe that the incident involving a drone at Gatwick Airport in London could have been an inside job, CNN reports.
Sussex Police said in a statement that the pilot of the drone, which caused widespread disruption for thousands of passengers and workers at Gatwick last December, may have had first-hand knowledge of an “airport operating environment,” or gained access to that data.
Gatwick Chief Operating Officer Chris Woodroofe said Sunday on BBC Panorama that the pilot of the drone “seemed to be able to see what was happening on the runway.”
He added, "It was clear that the drone operators had a link into what was going on at the airport.”
Sussex Police added that the possibility of an “insider” is related to a “credible line” of inquiry.
Woodroofe said that the incident, which caused over 140,000 passengers to experience delays and cancellations just before Christmas, was “malicious,” “criminal,” and said that "there is absolutely nothing that I would do differently when I look back at the incident, because ultimately, my number one priority has to be to maintain the safety of our passengers, and that's what we did.”
Since then, Gatwick has five million pounds on increased funding for drone protection.
“We would know the drone was arriving on site and we'd know where that drone had come from, where it was going to, and we'd have a much better chance of catching the perpetrator,” he said.
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