Airport shutdown:
Britain closes Gatwick Airport, diverts flights, after drones are spotted illegally flying nearby.
LONDON — Gatwick Airport, Britain’s second-busiest air hub, was shut down late Wednesday and into Thursday after a drone was seen flying illegally nearby, in what authorities said was a deliberate act to disrupt flights during one of the year’s busiest travel seasons.
Arriving flights carrying 10,000 passengers were diverted because of the shutdown, Gatwick officials said, with some travelers forced to land at airports as far away as Paris. Departing flights were initially grounded from 9 p.m. Wednesday to around 3 a.m. Thursday.
The airport, which is about 25 miles south of central London and connects passengers to 230 destinations in 70 countries, was shut again at 3:45 a.m. after another reported drone sighting.
By 4 p.m. local time, the drone pilot, or pilots, had not been found and all travel in and out of the airport was still shut down. Airport officials said they expected the disruption to last into the weekend.
The local police in Sussex, outside London, described the flying of a drone so close to the airport as a “deliberate act,” but said there were “no indications to suggest this is terror related.”
Nonetheless, the Ministry of Defense had gotten involved by Thursday afternoon.
“We are deploying specialist equipment to Gatwick Airport to assist Sussex Police,” a ministry spokesman said, declining to provide details.
As part of an investigation with the Surrey police and the National Police Air Service, the Sussex police used Twitter to ask for the public’s help in finding whoever was flying the drone, or drones. The police described the devices as “of industrial specification.”
Gatwick and the airlines that use it advised passengers to check the status of flights before coming to the airport. A total of 760 flights carrying 115,000 passengers were scheduled to leave and arrive on Thursday.
“We are appealing for information to help us identify the operators of the #Gatwick #drones,” the police wrote.
Chris Woodroofe, the airport’s chief operating officer, told Sky News that two staff members first spotted a drone Wednesday night.
“Since then, the drone has appeared and disappeared and appeared and disappeared,” he said.
The last reported sighting was around 11 a.m.
The scene at the airport terminals was one of bedlam as stranded passengers unable to make alternative plans with airlines by phone swamped ticket counters in the terminals.
By the afternoon, many airlines were offering refunds rather than rescheduling flights because of the high demand.
A spokeswoman for Heathrow Airport, which is Britain’s busiest and is also located in London, said it was heightening security in response to the events at Gatwick.
“We have increased patrols around our airport,” she said.