[TheOtherHobbes]

The official story makes no sense at all. Why announce that you have arrested a couple of people if you have no hard evidence against them?

Either this is all monumental incompetence, or the real story isn't being released.

Coincidentally, Birmingham airport was shut for a couple of hours today after an air traffic control failure.

If that's the end of the story, it's fair to assume there's no connection.

If there's a spate of air traffic control and/or other failures over the next few days, it's going to be hard not to wonder if something else is going on.

[megaremote]

> The official story makes no sense at all. Why announce that you have arrested a couple of people if you have no hard evidence against them?

For lots of reasons. To make it seem like they are making progress, to make it seem like it is safe to travelers, to assuage their bosses, pick one.

[rurban]

The "hard" evidence was that their neighbors saw them some month ago operating a drone in their backyard. So they called police. Who notified the press.

As suspected eco terrorist you would hardly operate from your backyard near the airport. But the brits do have surveillance cameras all over so they will find something sooner or later.