Simon Calder, Chris Baynes, Jon Sharman, Peter Stubley
Gatwick airport delays: Flights resume despite new drone sighting
Gatwick Airport was forced to suspend flights for just over an hour following another drone sighting on Friday evening.
The runway reopened after officials were assured that the new "military measures" in place meant it was safe for planes to take off and land.
"While we investigated, airfield movements were suspended," said a spokesperson for the airport. "This was a precautionary measure as safety remains our main priority,
"The military measures we have in place at the airport have provided us with the reassurance necessary that it is safe to reopen our airfield."
Sussex Police said they were "deploying significant resources to seek and locate the drone and its operator" but there were reports that the culprits were taunting officers by flying overhead while flashing their lights.
Officers said they had identified “a number of persons of interest” after there were more than 50 sightings of the craft in the 24 hours from 9pm on Wednesday, when Gatwick was first forced to close.
Sussex Police Assistant Chief Constable Steve Barry said investigators are keeping an open mind over the motive behind the drone attacks but are not treating it as a terrorist incident.
Mr Barry described the drone activity as "really high-end criminal behaviour". He said: "This is a really significant criminal offence. There are resources here at Gatwick Airport now to mitigate the threat of that and a lot of resources to bring the offender to justice."
It is believed that the Israeli-developed Drone Dome system, which can detect drones using radar, is one of the pieces of equipment being used to prevent further disruption.
Police are also prepared to blast the drones out of the sky with a shotgun or jam them with a hi-tech radar system.
A £10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the culprits is being offered by the Crimestoppers charity.
The latest drone activity meant another 108 arrivals were cancelled or diverted and 83 departures were aborted on Friday. Several flights were diverted to other airports around the UK.
Passengers have been advised to check with their airlines as to the status of their flight before travelling to Gatwick.
See below for our coverage of events as they happened:
Police have not yet found the person or people behind the drone flights, Gatwick's chief operating officer has said.
Chris Woodroofe said the airport hoped to handle slightly less than 700 flights on Friday but admitted that depended on the absence of further drone sightings.
Some 120,000 passengers had been affected by the disruption he said.
Gatwick Airport officials say the runway has reopened, allowing a "limited number" of scheduled flights to arrive and depart. Except for a brief window on Thursday morning, the runway has been closed since Wednesday night after repeated drone sightings on the airfield. According to aviation monitoring websites, the first plane to land at the airport for more than 33 hours
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme Mr Woodroofe refused to comment on the possibility of the airport awarding compensation to passengers affected by the Christmas chaos.
He added: "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."
Police have "a number of lines of enquiry" regarding the people thought to be behind the drone disruption, Assistant Chief Constable Steve Barry, of Sussex Police, told the BBC, but he declined to give details.
The last confirmed drone sighting took place just before 10pm on Thursday, he said, adding: "We've made a lot of progress overnight."
The military is involved in protecting passenger plans at Gatwick from further drone incursions, Chris Grayling has said.
The transport secretary told the BBC's Breakfast programme that "there are a range of measures that are there today which will give passengers confidence they are safe".
Asked if the drone flights were terror-related, Mr Grayling said: "Well, it's a different kind of disruption. Certainly, there is no evidence that it is terror-related in the conventional sense, not linked, as far as we're aware, to an international terrorist group.
"But it's clearly a kind of disruptive activity we've not seen before. This kind of incident is unprecedented anywhere in the world. We're going to have to learn very quickly what's happened.
"I plan to convene discussions with other airports around the UK very quickly indeed so they know what's happened, they understand what lessons need to be learned, and we put in place every measure we possibly can to make sure this can't happen again."
Challenged on the Today programme over the length of time it has taken to put in place a series of anti-drone measures at Gatwick, Mr Grayling insisted the incursions were "unprecedented".
Pressed further on whether previous warnings had been properly heeded, he said: "It's also something for which there aren't simple solutions.
"People say, 'Can't you just shoot down the drone?' There is experience recently elsewhere in the world of literally thousands of machine gun bullets being used to try and bring down a drone, failing to do so.
"You can't just fire weapons haphazardly in what is a built-up area around the airport."
The Gatwick Express train service has said tickets to or from Gatwick will also be valid for travel to Luton airport at no extra cost because of the drone disruption.
Similarly, passengers can travel on Southwestern Railway to Southampton Airport Parkway without paying extra. Anyone who needs a refund will not be charged an admin fee, Gatwick Express said.
Tickets from Thursday can still be used today, bosses said, and tickets with today's date can be used tomorrow.
Some 126,000 passengers are due to travel on Friday, but 145 out of the scheduled 837 flights have already been cancelled as aircraft are out of position and the airport's operations are restricted to just a few departures and arrivals per hour.
In the chaos and confusion at Gatwick Airport, with tens of thousands of travel plans in disarray due to drone overflights, many passengers have said to The Independent that they have not been provided with their rights under European air passengers’ rights rules. This briefing should provide clarity
Gatwick's chief operating officer has refused to rule out the potential for the airport to suffer more drone-related disruption in the future once the UK military leaves the west Sussex site.
Drafting in military personnel was among a series of measures taken to protect passenger planes from drones on Thursday and Friday, airport bosses and transport secretary Chris Grayling have said.
Chris Woodroofe said there was currently no commercially available equipment he could put in place to neutralise the threat on a permanent basis.
Speaking outside Gatwick on Friday he said: "It's a criminal act, deliberate act. This is an unprecedented issue. This isn't a Gatwick airport issue. It's not even a UK issue. It's an international issue.
"What we need to be doing going forward is work with technology providers and with the Government to enhance our ability to address the risk posed by drones to airports."
British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa) general secretary, Brian Strutton, said: "It is up to the relevant authorities to decide whether it is safe to re-open Gatwick given that the rogue drone is still around and may be expected to fly again.
"Balpa is not aware that any special advice has been given to pilots operating into or out of Gatwick and so we have this morning ensured that all our UK pilots have Balpa's advice on what to do if they see a drone while flying.
"Balpa remains extremely concerned at the risk of a drone collision. It is possible that the rogue drones may go undetected around the perimeter or could obstruct the flight paths outside the immediate detection zone.
"Given this continuing threat we have this morning issued our advice to pilots about steps to be taken if a drone is sighted."
Empty Ryanair check-in desks at Gatwick (Simon Calder)
A dispatch from our travel correspondent Simon Calder, who is at Gatwick this morning.
The biggest airline at Gatwick, easyJet, has told The Independent that its cancellations have now risen to 49 for Friday, and others may occur because of restrictions on landings and take-offs at the airport.
Its rival, Ryanair, has abandoned Gatwick completely for the day and moved all its operations to Stansted. Dedicated shuttle buses are operating every hour to take passengers to the Essex airport.
