Flights through London’s busy Gatwick Airport have been suspended for a second time after briefly re-opening early Thursday morning leading to travel chaos.
Inbound flights have been diverted to airports across the UK and Europe.
The airport has just tweeted:
Thursday 07.40: Flights to and from Gatwick remain suspended, due to drone activity. Please do not travel to the airport without checking with your airline first. We ‘re sorry for the inconvenience today, but the safety of our passengers and staff is our no.1 priority.
The BBC tweeted:
“I have a drone on my airfield… and #Gatwick will not be able to reopen until that drone is brought down” – Gatwick’s Chief Operating Officer Chris Woodroofe apologises to passengers and says flights to and from the airport remain suspended
Easyjet has tweeted:
Customers on cancelled flights will be entitled to a free of charge transfer to an alternative flight. Whilst the situation is outside of our control we would like to apologise to passengers for the inconvenience caused.
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.
Gatwick averages 780 flight movements and 125,000 passengers per day but this would be a particularly busy time ahead of Christmas.
Passengers tweeted that they were stuck on planes at Gatwick while others said they were diverted to Heathrow and Manchester.
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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 it 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.
Some of the public response:
Ben Clewer Retweeted Gatwick Airport LGW
This is an enormous risk to safety and the idiot flying the drone should face serious criminal repercussions. Further laws on #drone ownership must be debated #gatwickairport
And another:
Imagine being that much of a sad act, that you’d actually fly a drone over one of the countries busiest airports. I hope the old bill make an example of you, and you get what you deserve ya noncey fruitcake #gatwickairport #drone
And….
To the idiot who thought flying a #drone over #gatwickairport would be a good idea, I hope they find you and charge you for every penny it has cost the airport and people flying and waiting to meet friends and family.
Developing story.
