Gatwick sightings ‘may have been police’s own drone’
Sussex Police chief admits some reports in airport chaos could have been of machine from his force
SOME of the drone sightings which kept Gatwick Airport on lockdown for 36 hours may have been reports of Sussex Police’s own craft, the force’s highest-ranking officer admitted yesterday. Police received 115 reports of sightings in the area surrounding the airfield, including 92 confirmed by Chief Constable Giles York as coming from “credible people”.
But the force launched its own drone to search for what officers believed at the time to be malicious aircraft being flown above the runway in the early hours of Dec 19 to intentionally force Gatwick to shut down.
Yesterday, Mr York conceded that subsequent reported sightings may have been of the surveillance aircraft
Jumping for joy
as opposed to any illegal activity. Mr York told Today on BBC Radio 4: “Of course, we will have launched our own Sussex Police drones at the time with a view to investigate, with a view to engage, with a view to survey the area looking for the drone, so there could be some level of confusion there.”
Last week, Det Ch Supt Jason Tingley of Sussex Police accepted there may have never been a drone in the air, insisting officers were “working with human beings”.
But a Sussex Police spokesman told The Sunday Telegraph: “Disruption at Gatwick airport was caused categorically by illegal drone activity and not as a result of any use of police drones. No police drones were in operation at the start of the incident and were not launched at all unless in response and only when the airport was closed.”
Two damaged drones found by police near Gatwick Airport have now also been ruled out of any involvement.
Mr York told the BBC that police have searched 26 potential launch sites for drones near the airport, but do not believe they have found the drone thought to have been flown near runways on Dec 19 and 20. “I think the fact that we have found two drones so far as a result of this does show the extent of the search that has been carried out,” he said.
Despite there being no known photographs nor videos of the suspected drone, Mr York remains adamant there was at least one circling Gatwick.
He said he was “really sorry” for Paul Gait and Elaine Kirk, who said they felt “violated” after being questioned for 36 hours in custody before being ruled out of involvement in the disruption.