Investigation finds that British sports venues need to beef up anti-drone tech. GETTY IMAGES
Major sports venues in Britain are "as ill-equipped for a drone attack as Gatwick Airport was over Christmas," an investigation found, according to Ben Rumsby of the London TELEGRAPH. Premier League clubs and other event organizers have "yet to invest in technology designed to stop a terrorist atrocity or other serious incident," despite it being available before the intrusion that grounded flights for three days at the country’s second-busiest airport. Those who could afford it have been warned they could soon face their own "Gatwick moment," or worse, if they "failed to join the airport and Heathrow by purchasing detection, tracking and other countermeasures." Just one of the country's major outdoor sports facilities had "fully adopted such technology, which costs hundreds of thousands to install." It has also already been "used successfully elsewhere," including at last summer’s World Cup in Russia, "with the head of the country’s secret service recently announcing it had foiled terrorist plots to use drones to attack supporters there." ManU said that it trialed anti-drone technology, Arsenal, Tottenham and Everton said that they have "held talks with specialist firms," while Chelsea said that it was "looking at remedies" (TELEGRAPH, 1/21).
