Drone scare ‘just start’

An investigation was launched after Heathrow briefly suspended all departures due to reported drone sightings just weeks after a similar debacle caused chaos at Gatwick.

The London airport halted all outbound flights as a “precautionary measure” to “prevent any threat to operational safety”. An all clear was given an hour later.

Metropolitan Police Commander Stuart Cundy said: “Police officers were amongst those who saw the drone and a full criminal investigation has been launched”.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: “We are deploying specialist equipment to Heathrow Airport at the request of the Metropolitan Police.”

On Tuesday, the British Government had announced that police and airports will be given new powers to shoot down, catch and jam drones in a bid to prevent a repeat of the chaos that plagued Gatwick over the Christmas period.

Oleg Vornik, chief executive of DroneShield, which uses high-tech equipment to protect against drones, warned similar problems were likely. “Gatwick has shown to prospective copycats . . . you can easily disrupt major piece of infrastructure such as an international airport. And they are likely be able to get away with impunity, due to the target having no protection to detect, localise and defeat the drone threat. This is only the beginning.”