ESCUELA SUPERIOR POLITECNICA

DE CHIMBORAZO
Name: Angel Bonilla
Level: 4th “ñ”
Date: 08/01/19

Heathrow Airport halts departures after

drone sighting
By Kara Fox, CNN
Updated 1932 GMT (0332 HKT) January 8, 2019

A "no drone zone" poster is seen at Gatwick Airport, which was brought to a halt for 36
hours in December following drone sightings.
London (CNN)Flights from London's Heathrow Airport were temporarily suspended
on Tuesday evening following a drone sighting.

In a statement, a Heathrow Airport spokesperson said the drone was first sighted in the
airport's vicinity at approximately 5:05 p.m. local time (12:05 p.m. ET) and that the
airport was "working closely with the Met Police to prevent any threat to operational
safety."
Departures were stopped as a "precautionary measure" during the investigation, the
spokesperson said.
Some flight departures had resumed by 6:20 p.m., according to the aviation tracking
website Flight 24.
Shortly after, a Heathrow Airport spokesperson said that while departures had
resumed, they were continuing to monitor the situation and apologized to passengers
who had been affected by the "short suspension."
The disruption at Heathrow comes just weeks after drone sightings brought Gatwick
Airport to a standstill for 36 hours, affecting the plans of about 150,000 passengers
during the busiest travel period of the year. The perpetrators have not yet been caught.
Commentary

In the wake of Gatwick's drone disruption, UK airports including Heathrow and Gatwick invested
millions of pounds in anti-drone technology, according to British media reports.

On Monday, the UK's Department for Transport said the government was moving forward with
plans to give police new powers to "tackle drones' misuse and abuse." Under new legislation,
police will be given additional powers to land, seize and search drones. Exclusion zones around
airports where drones are banned from flying will be extended and drone operators will be
required by law to register beginning in November 2019.

Heathrow is currently the world's seventh-busiest airport in terms of passenger numbers, with
78 million in 2017.

Vocabulary

 Statement: something that someone says or writes officially

 Forward: towards the direction that is in front of you
 Government: the group of people who officially control a country
 Following: what comes next, often used to introduce a list, report, etc
 Precautionary: something that you do to prevent bad things happening in the future
 Powers: control or influence over people and events
 Required: to need or demand something
 Extended: to make an activity, agreement, etc last for a longer time
 Beginning: the first part of something or the start of something
 Disruption: to interrupt something and stop it continuing as it should
 Airport: a place where planes take off and land, with buildings for passengers to wait
in
 Passenger: someone who is travelling in a vehicle, but not controlling the vehicle
 Register: the style of language, grammar, and words used in particular situations
 Additional: extra to what already exists
 Disruption: to interrupt something and stop it continuing as it should
 According: to treat someone specially, usually by showing respect
 Aviation: flying aircraft or producing aircraft
 Tracking: to follow a person or animal by looking for proof that they have been
somewhere, or by using electronic equipment
 Website: an area on the Inernet where information about a particular subject,
organization, etc can be found
 Operators: someone who helps to connect people on a telephone system