Ian has done the UK industry a favour, we shall discuss this.
Over the last several months efforts have continued via the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) to seek details about events that took place at Gatwick Airport in 2018, when an alleged drone shut down the airport and Sussex Police took over managing the incident which they code-named Operation Trebor
While several individuals have been quizzing authorities about events in 2018, Ian Hudson of UAV Hive on X (formerly Twitter), chose to fight 3 cases where the Information Commissioner had deemed that the public interest was better served by allowing Sussex Police to refuse detailed answers.
The hearing of the cases took place at a First-tier Tribunal which is a specialist court dealing with disputes on matters such as information rights.
The Tribunal decided in favour of Ian Hudson against The Information Commissioner for 2 of the 3 cases, [2024] UKFTT 166 (GRC) and [2024] UKFTT 168 (GRC).
The decisions instructed Sussex Police to release more information about the incident, relating to the purchase of the counter-drone system and also an elaboration of the timeline of events which was vague in the official Operational Trebor Debrief that the force reluctantly published with numerous redactions in 2021.
