The maximum sentence at present is five years unless it leads to significant damage/harm/death in which case I understand that takes precedent quite rightly. The biggest fear for the aircraft is engine ingestion. There have been many tests by the CAA/FAA now.
An example of what is believed to be an air impact was reported here -
https://petapixel.com/2018/12/14/737-passenger-plane-slams-into-drone-during-landing-reports-say/ An AeroMexico 737 took a hit to the nosecone. It looks worse than it is from a technical point of view but the cost and disruption is very significant. Also the underwear effect on the pilots will have been significant as it was during the landing cycle which is busy anyway.
There are commercial detectors, jammers and intercept tools available but it will take events like today before people spring the budget for them in decent density. The detectors I have played with (dedrone) use audio to track the signature noise with directional microphones, RF to monitor the control radio traffic and usually the drone video feed back to the controller. These are usually a combination of omni-directional for initial identification and then directional for location/control.
In the future there will be a need for electronic perimeter security as well as fences and CCTV, it just has to register with authorities and the events like this will do it. I would imagine the compensation cost will pay for it 10 times over but some people will never learn. Some of the tools can also integrate to the commercial CCTV to assist the security team in tracking the problem more quickly. It will be all about response time in the future.
This problem has existed for military, police and government buildings for years. It can also be an issue for upmarket hotels due to journalist intrusion as well as other commercial locations (MIRA for unreleased cars as an example).
For the drones operators there are apps that you can use (if you are interested in remaining legal) which harness the geolocation on your smartphone and have a library of risks and exclusion zones. It also guides on height etc. It is hard to make an error if you are using these. Until they make every drone perform gps based self guidance/flight denial this is a gaping hole. This would mean that any drone caught flying near to a no-fly zone is illegal by definition and so can be destroyed with authority.
There is already a drone register however it has no teeth at this point. Some of the detection tools are already linked to this database for identification. The issue is the open circuit sales process, lack of enforcement and accessible pricing. Also the nature of the rules in many regions being different. Oh yes and GDPR has pushed it's nose in for some countries which made it a laugh as the police were blocking the police being able to deal with the little mosquito's.
I bought the MJX Bugs 5W that Peter highlighted in a previous thread to perform some testing a while back and it was surprisingly effective. It also cost less in broken bits than the DJI we were using before. It was just the damage/destroy/detain element that needs better development. There are a few conditions under which a shotgun is very effective and legal. It's also great fun and rewarding.
