Holiday chaos as drones shut London’s Gatwick Airport
LONDON — Drones spotted over the runway forced the shutdown of London’s Gatwick Airport on Thursday during one of the busiest times of the year, stranding or delaying tens of thousands of Christmas-season travellers and setting off a hunt for the operator of the intruding aircraft.
The prospect of a deadly collision between what police called “industrial”-grade drones and an airliner led authorities to stop all flights in and out.
Police said that they had no doubt the intrusion was a deliberate attempt to disrupt operations at the airport during a peak period but that there were “absolutely no indications to suggest this is terror-related.”
About 20 police units from two forces tried in vain to find the drone operator as soon as the first unmanned aircraft was spotted above Gatwick on Wednesday evening. Police told airport officials it was too risky to try to shoot down the drones — stray bullets might kill someone.