Holiday jets hit by drone chaos
Flights diverted and runway closed twice as rogue gadget is spotted at Gatwick
‘Forced to change at the last minute’
HUNDREDS of passengers faced travel chaos last night after a drone was spotted flying close to Gatwick airport.
At least six incoming flights were diverted and scores of others had to circle in the air after the runway was closed twice.
Many other passengers were delayed on the ground as they waited to depart after the two sightings of the device shortly after 6pm.
One angry passenger stuck at the airport wrote on Twitter: ‘Whoever’s flying their drone around Gatwick… please collect it and go home.’
At least five easyJet flights were diverted, including one from Naples in Italy that was sent to Stansted, and a flight from Bodrum, Turkey, that landed at London Southend. Planes travelling from Milan, Inverness and Geneva were also sent to nearby airports.
A British Airways flight from Valencia, Spain, was diverted to Bournemouth, according to a tweet from Frankie Goes to Hollywood singer Holly Johnson.
Others, including an easyJet flight from Toulouse, were turned away as they approached the runway and had to circle above until the danger passed.
Departing flights including to Naples, Belfast, Stockholm and Oslo were delayed.
Experts fear a drone colliding with a passenger jet could cause serious damage to the plane and put lives at risk. One passenger on the Toulouse flight, Mark Alexander-Dann, 27, said: ‘We were just coming into land when the plane suddenly started climbing back up into the air.
‘They later explained we’d been forced to change our landing at the last minute because someone was flying a drone in the area.’
Niamh Slatter, from Sussex, who was on the Valencia flight, said: ‘We ended up circling over the south coast for a while. Our landing was aborted quite late as the drone had been spotted again, so we were told the flight was being diverted.’
Craig Jenkins, from Greenwich, south east London, who was on the EasyJet flight from Naples, said: ‘We were crossing over the Channel and it started circling. It did four or five cir- cles, heading further east, before the captain said we were landing at Stansted. First, they said Gatwick was closed because of an incident. Then, shortly after, they said it was a drone.’
Last night, a spokesman for Gatwick said police were investigating. They were unable to confirm how many flights were affected, but said: ‘Due to reports of a drone in the vicinity of the airfield, runway operations were suspended between 18.10 and 18.19, and again from 18.36 to 18.41, resulting in a small number of go-arounds and diverts. Operations have resumed.’
An EasyJet spokesman said three diverted flights continued to Gatwick after refuelling and that the airline was arranging coach transfers for the Bodrum passengers stuck at Southend.
They added: ‘The safety of our passengers and crew is always EasyJet’s highest priority. While the circumstances are outside our control, EasyJet apologises for any inconvenience caused.’
It comes after a series of nearmisses involving the remotecontrolled devices. Last month a pilot had to take evasive action after one came within 65ft of his plane as he came in to land in Edinburgh. The flight then landed safely, but police warned there could have been ‘far more serious consequences’.
Another drone came within 200ft of a jet last month in a ‘serious’ near-miss over County Durham, while last year one almost collided with an A320 aircraft carrying up to 165 passengers as it flew past the Shard skyscraper on its way in to Heathrow.
Civil Aviation Authority rules on drones say the user must keep the device 150ft away from people and buildings and below 400ft to avoid colliding with a plane. Drones are not allowed near airports, and endangering the safety of a plane can result in up to five years in prison.