Army hunting for Gatwick drones

DRONE operators have deliberately targeted Gatwick Airport, causing chaos for more than 120,000 people just days before Christmas.

And last night the military was called in after the perpetrators escaped capture.

An emergency Whitehall meeting was also held in response to the crisis at the UK’s second busiest airport.

The two drones were first seen on Wednesday night, flying over the airport’s perimeter fence and close to the runway, which was shut down for most of yesterday, cancelling 663 of 760 outbound flights.

More than 20 police units from two forces were searching for the perpetrator.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson told reporters: “Sussex Police have requested assistance and support from the Armed Forces, and we will be deploying the Armed Forces to give them the help that they need.”

The rogue flying devices are part of an increasing cause for concern in the aviation industry as collisions could be disastrous.

Passengers left stranded in the airport have told of families running out of food and trying to sleep in “freezing” terminals as they try to travel home for Christmas. Andri Kyprianou, from Cyprus, said she saw a pregnant woman sleeping on the floor and passengers with infants spending the night in the “freezing” South Terminal.

She said she got to the airport at 12.30am on Wednesday night for a 3am flight to Cyprus via Kiev, only to find it had been cancelled and the next connection in Kiev is on Sunday.

She said: “I haven’t slept... we are very tired. It’s freezing, we are cold, having to wear all of these coats for extra blankets.

“There were pregnant women, one of them was sleeping on the floor.”

Last night, Gatwick said passengers’ welfare was its “top priority” and said the heating would be left on, water would be handed out and additional staff would patrol the grounds.

Hotels in the area had already become fully booked.

Sussex Police said the drones are believed to be “of an industrial specification.”

Superintendent Justin Burtenshaw said he was “absolutely convinced” the incident was “a deliberate act to disrupt the airport”.

He described attempts to catch whoever is controlling the gadgets as “painstaking” because it is “a difficult and challenging thing to locate them”.

He added: “Each time we believe we get close to the operator, the drone disappears; when we look to reopen the airfield, the drone reappears.”

Disruption will continue today, which is one of the airport’s busiest days of the year.

Aviation Minister Baroness Sugg said: “These drones have been flown illegally and the operators, who have acted incredibly irresponsibly, could face up to five years in jail.”

Earlier this year, new laws came into force which ban all drones from flying within one kilometre of airport boundaries.