Updated: Drones close London's Gatwick Airport a second time

Flights through London's busy Gatwick Airport have been suspended for a second time after briefly re-opening early Thursday morning.

Authorities closed the airfield for five hours from 11:03 pm London time on December 19 to 3:01 am on December 20.

The closure caused passengers to be delayed at Gatwick and flights diverted after two of the unmanned devices were spotted near a runway. Some passengers tweeted that they were stuck on planes at Gatwick while others said they were diverted to Heathrow and Manchester. Read: World's Best Airlines for 2019 Airport authorities said a further drone sighting after the airport re-opened had forced the runway to be closed again from 3:45am  and it was investigating the sighting with Sussex police. "We will update when we have suitable reassurance that its is appropriate to re-open the runway,'' they said. The authorities advised anyone traveling on December 20 or collecting someone from the airport to check the status of their flight. "Unfortunately, this has led to a number of flights being diverted to other airports while aircraft have also been unable to depart from Gatwick,'' the authorities said. "Our airlines are working to provide passengers with hotel accommodation or transport passengers landing at airports other than Gatwick by other means, and Gatwick staff are looking after passengers in our terminals.'' Flightradar 24 said earlier that over two dozen flights inbound to Gatwick had been diverted at that stage with others continuing to divert or hold pending an all clear. gatwick averages 780 flight movements and 125,000 passengers per day but this would be a particularly busy time ahead of Christmas. Some of the public response:

Ben Clewer Retweeted Gatwick Airport LGW

And another: And.... Developing story.