Getting on an airplane should be the start of a relaxing trip to another location. But nothing triggers panic quite so much as seeing your baggage precariously balancing on towing vehicles from outside the plane window prior to departure. Thankfully, these human-driven baggage tow'tractors' could soon be a thing of the past. British Airways is to start using a self-driving baggage robot called'Auto-DollyTug' at Gatwick Airport later this year. The machines will pick up suitcases from the terminal building and ferry them across the tarmac in closed containers to awaiting aircraft.

A woman successfully used ChatGPT to encourage her landlord to fix a washer and dryer that had been out of order for over two years. The washing machine of a New York City apartment was fixed soon after 28-year-old Svetlana sent a legally charged chatbot letter to her landlord. Svetlana, who did not wish to reveal her last name, claimed the bot was'super-smart' after quoting specific sections of New York rent law to back its case. She said: 'That's the beauty of ChatGPT; the ability to collaborate, bounce ideas, put thoughts into a cohesive piece of writing. The New York resident first had qualms with her landlord after receiving a rent increase notice of 0.4 per cent, from $1,389 to $1,395 (£1116 to £1121).

A motorist who received a fine after driving through Gatwick Airport's drop-off area challenged it using ChatGPT artificial intelligence (AI) and won a much-reduced penalty. Shaun Bosley, from Brighton, was dropping a work colleague at the airport last November and received a £100 "final notice" from NCP several months later, despite saying he had received no previous correspondence. Mr Bosley, a sales consultant for Phyron, a Swedish company which produces videos for car dealerships using AI, turned to ChatGPT, which generates human-like conversations. Users simply type a request into a chat box and the system can generate a response almost instantly. I didn't have to look at it and think'that sounds like a robot, I need to change some of it' "In the end, I just typed, 'write an appeal to a penalty charge notice for driving through Gatwick airport. I have received final notice, but never received first notice of the penalty', and straight away it came back with a great response," he told the PA news agency.

The drone attack that brought Gatwick airport to a standstill last December could have been an "inside job", according to police, who said the perpetrator may have been operating the drone from within the airport. Sussex police told BBC Panorama that the fact an insider may have been behind the attack was "treated as a credible line of enquiry from the earliest stages of the police response". Gatwick's chief operating officer, Chris Woodroofe, believes the perpetrator was familiar with the airport's operational procedures and had a clear view of the runway or possibly infiltrated its communication network. "It was clear that the drone operators had a link into what was going on at the airport," he told Panorama, in his first interview since the incident. He said the culprit had carefully picked a drone that would remain undetected by the airport's DJI Aeroscope detection system being tested at the time.

WASHINGTON - The Federal Aviation Administration said on Wednesday that 43 flights into New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport were required to hold after drone sightings at a nearby airport on Tuesday, while nine flights were diverted. The incident comes as major U.S. airports are assessing the threat of drones and have been holding meetings to address the issue. The issue of drones impacting commercial air traffic came to the fore after London's second-busiest airport, Gatwick Airport, was severely disrupted in December when drones were sighted on three consecutive days. An FAA spokesman said that Tuesday's event lasted for 21 minutes. The flights into Newark, the 11th-busiest U.S. airport, were suspended after a drone was seen flying at 3,500 feet over nearby Teterboro Airport, a small regional airport about 17 miles (27.3 km) away that mostly handles corporate jets and private planes.

Passengers heading to Gatwick airport and leaving their car there will soon have it whisked away by a robot valet. The fleet of droids will put cars closer to one another than is possible with human drivers and therefore be able to fit a third more cars in the same area. A trial is starting in August which will see customers leave their car in a drop-off zone before summoning a robot through a designated app. Military grade GPS will guide the machine to the car where forklift-like equipment will approach the car from the front, slide under the car's body and move it to a specific spot. Passengers heading to Gatwick airport and leaving their car there will soon have it whisked away by a robot valet.

Police will be given new powers to tackle the illegal use of drones, the government has announced. The area around airports where drones are banned from flying will also be extended, and from 30 November operators of drones between 250g and 20kg will need to be registered. Labour said action on drones should have been taken years ago. Last month flights from Gatwick were suspended for more than 36 hours after drones were reported over the airfield. The plans follow a consultation into the use of drones which began in July.

LONDON – British police said Saturday that two drones found near London's Gatwick Airport were not involved in the disruption that shut down the busy airport just days before Christmas. Sussex Police Chief Giles York told BBC radio that police have searched 26 potential launch sites near the airport but do not believe they have found the drone that was seen near the runway on Dec. 19 and Dec. 20. York said he is "absolutely certain that there was a drone flying throughout the period that the airport was closed." A senior detective said last week it was possible drones hadn't flown over the airport last week, sowing confusion, but police later insisted that the drone sightings were authentic. The airport's closure led to more than 100,000 people being stranded or delayed in the worst ever drone-related disruption at an international airport.

Detection systems are now able to be deployed throughout the UK to combat the threat of drones, ministers say. It follows three days of disruption at Gatwick airport last week, when drones were sighted near the runway. Security minister Ben Wallace said those who use drones "either recklessly or for criminal purposes" could expect "the most severe sentence". It comes after the couple arrested and released without charge over the chaos at Gatwick said they felt "violated". About 1,000 flights were affected during 36 hours of chaos at Gatwick airport last week.

Two people have been arrested in connection with the "criminal use of drones" at London Gatwick Airport, police have said, after three days of disruption affected tens of thousands of passengers during the pre-Christmas getaway. Drones were first sighted hovering around Britain's second-busiest air hub on Wednesday, grinding the runway to a standstill and causing chaos for more than 120,000 people. "As part of our ongoing investigations into the criminal use of drones which has severely disrupted flights in and out of Gatwick Airport, Sussex Police made two arrests just after 10:00pm (22:00 GMT) on December 21," the force's Superintendent James Collis said. "Every line of enquiry will remain open to us until we are confident that we have mitigated further threats to the safety of passengers." Police and military experts had been deployed to search for the drone operators which appeared near the airport every time it was expected to reopen.