Plan to let the detainee escape with drone failed, prisons get a detection system

It was local residents of the prison of Nivelles who informed the police at the end of February after their attention was drawn by a strange humming sound. A gigantic drone with a long rope and a kind of armor suddenly tangled above their heads. The police were quickly on the spot and could perhaps avoid an escape. Packages were dropped above the courtyard of the prison.

The drone pilot, an Albanian criminal, could be arrested and is in prison. The council chamber has extended its arrest. But the drone itself, according to witness with a wingspan of more than two meters, that would not have been found.

Kathleen van de Vijver, spokesperson for the prison system, can only confirm that there is a police investigation.

According to the police, that investigation shows that the arrested criminal may wanted to help escape a countryman. A convicted person who serves a long prison sentence.

Drop packs

Nevertheless, Tom Verstappen, drone instructor at Drone College in Westerlo, or the drone that is currently available here can lift an adult man and move over a long distance.

« To drop packages above prisons, drones are regularly used, to let someone escape that would be a scoop. It should be a gigantic drone, with heavy engines and gigantic propellers. Take Sproetrones, used to spray large fields. Those who think it would be a strayers of three meters. Verstappen.

That is what his colleague Geert Vanhenhove of Helicus says. “The use of drones by criminals is bad for our sector. But a prisoner to escape with a drone seems unlikely and even impossible to me. Our heaviest drone weigh 95 kilograms and can lift 30 kilograms. But I don’t think they can fly towards a prison unnoticed. So most prisons are being protected with cables. To help prisoners escape, I can hardly believe that, « says Vanhenhove.

‘Drone shield ‘

The Norwegian company Griff Aviation would have a megadrone for professional use. The Griff 300 has a lifting capacity of 225 kilograms, but should not normally fly here. And would also be noticed immediately.

Read too. The largest prison in the country from now on protected against drones, other prisons

The FPS Justice has been busy setting up some sort of ‘drone shield’ for longer than today.

For prisons, a partnership has been set up with Skydrone for the detection of drones, says Valérie Callebaut of the Federal Public Service Justice.

The prison of Haren is the first to be equipped with a detection system to signal drones and to intercept in time. This should especially prevent packages with telephones or drugs to enter the prison through the air. How the system works is kept secret for security reasons.

But the intention is, it sounds, to provide other prisons.