A TORY minister’s suggestion that drones could be deterred by barking guard dogs has been rubbished by a Scottish expert.
Footage of Liz Truss making the suggestion in the Commons in 2016 has resurfaced in the aftermath of this week’s Gatwick airport shutdown, which was caused by drones flying above the runway.
Speaking during a debate on contraband entering UK prisons, the then-secretary of state for justice, outlined preventative strategies.
She said: “I was at HMP Pentonville last week. They’ve now got patrol dogs who are barking, which helps deter drones.
“So we’re using all kinds of solutions to deal with contraband coming into our prisons.”
The MP’s statement drew sceptical looks, including several from her party colleagues.
“It’s the minister who is barking,” one Labour MP replied.
Scepticism has not been exclusive to politicians, however.
Bjorn Aaen, director and chief pilot of Drone Scotland, said he would be “amazed” if dogs acted as an effective deterrent to drones.
“Dogs could draw to the attention of guards that there was something in the area,” he said.
“That’s the only thing they could do. I mean, what’s a dog going to do to a drone, bark it away?”
Aaen, whose Uddingston-based company provide aerial photography and film services, explained that the typical drone would have no means to detect barking. They don’t tend to carry microphones because noise is drowned out by the spinning rotors.
“I would be interested to know how the dogs stop the drones because I can’t see the logic myself,” he added.
“If that was a simple deterrent, they would just put dogs around Gatwick airport and that would stop the drones coming in.”
Truss’s remarks have come back to bite the now Chief Secretary to the Treasury, after Twitter users dug out the video amid the Gatwick crisis.
Around 130,000 passengers were affected by 837 flight cancellations between Wednesday evening and yesterday.
Armed forces were deployed to locate the pilots and ground the devices, with the airport not expected to be operating as normal until the end of today.
Despite prior suggestions from his Tory colleague, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said there was “no simple solution” to ending the delays.
Police ruled out terror-related motives but said that it was possible the disruption was caused by an environmental protest.
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