Drone sightings shut down Gatwick airport, leaving thousands stranded

by Chris Mills Rodrigo - 12/20/18 4:10 PM ET

London’s Gatwick airport was shut down Wednesday night over nearby drone sightings, which police have described as a “deliberate act.”

The airport canceled incoming and outgoing air travel, leaving thousands of travelers stranded.

{mosads}The airport closed at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, was open for 45 minutes on Thursday morning, and then closed again.

Police are searching for who is operating the drones.

“Each time we believe we get close to the operator, the drone disappears; when we look to reopen the airfield, the drone reappears,” Sussex Police Superintendent Justin Burtenshaw told the UK’s Press Association.

Sussex police said Thursday that “there are no indications to suggest this is terror related.”

#GatwickDrones | We are carrying out a joint search w/ @Gatwick_Airport for the operators of #drones sighted at #Gatwick. Public safety is paramount and we will take all available actions to disrupt this deliberate act. There are no indications to suggest this is terror related. pic.twitter.com/J36d0Xzo2G

— Sussex Police (@sussex_police) December 20, 2018

Theresa May’s spokesperson called for the situation to be resolved as soon as possible.

“This is a serious incident, it’s causing widespread disruption for passengers,” the spokesperson said. “The intention, obviously, is that it should be brought to a close as soon as possible.”

Aviation expert Jon Parker told CNN that the scale of disruption was like nothing he had seen before.

“The usual practice [when a drone is spotted] is to suspend flights for half-an-hour, which is the usual battery lifespan for drones,” said Parker, head of the drone training company Flyby Technology.

In the case of Gatwick, he said, “whoever is responsible for this has had several batteries and have brought their drones back to the ground to put new batteries on them.”