Surveillance Tools Helping Airports Tackle Drones

In 2018, drone sightings forced London’s Gatwick airport to suspend operations for 33 hours, affecting the flights of over 140,000 passengers. Since then, airports worldwide, including Dubai, Copenhagen, and Frankfurt, have all reported temporary closures related to drone sightings.

With clear safety and economic implications, drones remain a major issue. This blog looks at three ways existing surveillance tools can help airports tackle the problem.

1. Use AI-based video analytics to detect drones

Airport radar systems can’t detect drones. To such systems, drones are typically too small and indistinguishable from other objects, such as birds. Also, many airport radar systems are programmed to proactively ignore ‘radar clutter’ to keep focus on legitimate aircraft.

Surveillance cameras and AI-based video analytics can detect drones. Long-range cameras can capture clear footage from as far away as 10km, while AI can be taught to recognise drone signatures such as size and movement characteristics. The combination can trigger control room alerts whenever the relevant criteria are met, with a very low risk of false positives.

Radar systems specifically designed for airports to detect drones are emerging. As these become more commonplace, they can be integrated into an open-architecture security and surveillance solution to ensure that radar ‘red flags’ can be visually tracked.

2. Use workflows to implement consistent ‘drone response’ measures

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued dedicated guidance to airports on the subject of drones. In addition to advice around detection, the guidance also stresses the importance of implementing dedicated incident management protocols.

When a drone is detected or reported, workflows can launch on-screen guidance based on the dedicated protocols and consider live data received from integrated systems.

Guidance might include visual verification of the incident, dispatch of security personnel to the sighting location, notification of police, prompts to initiate runway closures, etc. Workflows can also trigger measures such as automated audio warnings from speakers (depending on the drone operator's location).

3. Use remote solutions to coordinate teams and activity

Ideally, drones need to be detected and dealt with before they get anywhere near active airspace. Given this and the vast nature of airport estates, real-time communication and coordination with field-based personnel is essential.

Remote access solutions fit this brief. With them, people outside the control room can securely access important information relevant to their roles – from security guards, maintenance teams and passenger support staff to external personnel, including emergency responders.

Specific types of remote access technology also support secure feedback loops so that field-based personnel can report/send any new information – for example, video footage from their mobile devices, requests for support, and details of completed tasks. This helps ensure all involved have full situational awareness of how the incident unfolds and any further actions needed to bring it to a conclusion. 

Future focus

Anti-drone technology is evolving to lock on and jam a drone’s specific control frequency, essentially disabling it. In the future, such technology will be possible to incorporate into automated drone response workflows.