Gatwick drones ‘aim to disrupt’

Police say flying of devices in restricted area at busy airport intended to cause chaos – but no evidence of terrorism

The flying of drones at Gatwick, which caused the runway to be closed yesterday, was “a deliberate act to disrupt the airport”, police said.

Tens of thousands of passengers endured travel chaos after all flights at the West Sussex airport were suspended.

The runway was closed at 9pm on Wednesday after two of the devices were seen near the airfield.

It was reopened at 3am yesterday, but was shut again 45 minutes later after a further sighting of drones.

At 9.15am, the airport said there was “ongoing drone activity” and the runway remained closed.

Superintendent Justin Burtenshaw, of Sussex Police, said: “We believe this to be a deliberate act to disrupt the airport. However, there are absolutely no indications to suggest this is terrorrelated.”

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

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

Asked if he thought the operator would be caught, he said: “I’m convinced we will. It’s a painstaking thing with the new drones – the bigger the drone, the bigger the reach of the operator, so it’s a difficult and challenging thing to locate them, but I’ve got teams now and I’ve got investigators looking at how we do that, and I’m confident we will.”

Some 10,000 passengers were affected on Wednesday night, and a further 110,000 were due to either take off or land at the airport on 760 flights yesterday.

Gatwick’s MP, Tory Henry Smith, wrote on Twitter: “The closure of Gatwick Airport for 12 hours now due to drone flying appears to be a deliberate criminal act with geofencing breached.”

The airport’s chief operating officer, Chris Woodroofe, blasted the “irresponsible” drone use.

He said that two of the gadgets had been seen flying “over the perimeter fence and into where the runway operates from”.

Mr Woodroofe added that the drones had sparked “very significant disruption for passengers” but police did not want to shoot them down because of the risk from stray bullets.

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.”

Passengers faced severe disruption as flights were unable to leave the tarmac while others were diverted to alternative airports.

Some people reported being left stuck on planes for several hours.

Aviation website airlive.net said inbound flights were diverted to a range of UK airports as well as Amsterdam and Paris.

Pictures: Getty/Pa. There was chaos as passengers waited on any news of their cancelled flights at Gatwick yesterday.