Gatwick runway reopens for a 'limited number' of flights following drone chaos

Gatwick Airport has reopened for a “limited number” of flights after illegal drone flights caused chaos for tens of thousands of passengers for several days.

Flights in and out of Britain’s second-busiest airport were suspended on Wednesday night and throughout Thursday, only briefly reopening in the early hours.

Police and Gatwick bosses called in the army to help find the drone pilots, and authorities considered shooting down the aircraft.

Sussex Police say they are now working on the theory there is more than one drone, but no arrests have yet been made.

On Friday morning, Gatwick said the runway was “currently available”, with “limited number of aircraft” scheduled for departure and arrival but urged passengers to check the status of their flights before travelling and warned people could still face delays and cancellations.

According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, a plane landed at Gatwick from East Midlands Airport at 5.58am, while the first flight to depart left at 6.33am heading to Lapland.

On Thursday night, police said there had been more than 50 drone sightings in 24 hours from 9pm on Wednesday, when the airport first closed.

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Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Tingley, from Sussex Police, said police believe that the drone had been modified with the “intent of causing disruption”, and were looking through CCTV to identify the make and model.

He said they were following up a “number of persons of interest”.

Chris Woodroofe, Gatwick’s chief operating officer, said 120,000 passengers’ flights had been disrupted.

He said: “The issue from my perspective is that this has been a criminal act purposefully undertaken in order to cause this disruption and I very much hope we bring the perpetrator to justice.”

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said there was no known motive for the pilot of the “commercial” drone.