London’s Gatwick Airport plagued by drone sightings

LONDON (AP) — New drone sightings Friday caused fresh chaos for holiday travelers at London’s Gatwick Airport, which reopened in the morning after a 36-hour shutdown only to hastily suspend flights for more than an hour in the late afternoon on one of the busiest travel days of the year.

The reopening, closing and re-re- opening of Britain’s second-busiest airport due to repeated drone sightings raised a host of questions for British officials. Those included how safe is it really to fly with drones around and why can’t the country’s police, military and aviation experts catch those responsible since they have been investigating the drone invasions since Wednesday night.

The Friday night flight suspension at Gatwick caused still more delays and cancellations just as the holiday travel season peaked. Tens of thousands of travelers have been stranded or delayed due to the persistent drone crisis at Gatwick, located 30 miles south of London.

The latest drone sighting came after British police and transport officials said extra measures had been put in place to prevent drones from intruding on the airport, which serves 43 million passengers a year.

Military forces with special equipment have been brought in and police units are working around-theclock, but the culprit or culprits have not been found. Police say a sophisticated drone operation is targeting the airport to cause maximum disruption during the holiday rush.

The motive for the drone invasion wasn’t clear but British police said there are no indications it was “terror related.”

Gatwick reopened at about 6 a.m. Friday after having been shut down Wednesday night and all day Thursday.