Drones over Gatwick closed the airport for 30 hours, causing travel chaos at this busy time just before Christmas. At the time of writing, the perpetrators still haven’t been caught and the drones are still at large, albeit intermittently. This is despite the fact that both the army and police from two counties are out in force looking for them.

Conspiracy theories abound and, understandably, stranded passengers at Gatwick have taken to Twitter to vent their fury and frustration. Special forces are now on standby to shoot the drones down if they are spotted again. But why has it taken so long to come up with a plan?

This incident brings in to sharp focus why it’s so important to plan for the unexpected, and to plan for a myriad of scenarios, however unlikely and even outlandish they may seem. Is it fair to speculate that the management at Gatwick probably hadn’t foreseen that a tenacious drone over their runway could cause this level of disruption?

Robust disaster recovery planning is crucial to the short term preservation of reputation and long term survival of all businesses, no matter what size they are. One important aspect of that plan is allocating roles to members of the senior team. A strong lead and a team who are prepared to make decisions in a timely way is paramount. In moments of crisis, it’s important to have a clear and calm focus on the right approach and the task in hand.

First Recovery have a skilled and experienced team in disaster recovery. They deploy a disaster event manager to affected businesses signed up to their service within a day of disaster striking. A recovery centre, consisting of alternative office accommodation within a 5 mile radius, IT, systems and communications, are all in place within 24 hours. Sadly, they can’t provide an alternative runway though!