Heathrow drone: Passengers delayed as flights grounded at UK's busiest airport
Hundreds of passengers suffered disrupted journeys after sightings of a suspected drone grounded flights for around an hour at Britain's busiest airport.
Heathrow suspended departures after a gadget was spotted in the air near the take-off point on one of its two runways.
Airport chiefs apologised for the disruption to passengers.
The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, said he was preparing to deploy the same military technology used at Gatwick if the west London hub required it to keep planes flying.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “We continue to work closely with the Met Police to respond to reports of drones at Heathrow.
"Based on standard operating procedures, working with Air Traffic Control and the Met Police, we have resumed departures out of Heathrow following a short suspension."
The sightings came four days after both Heathrow and Gatwick reported they were investing millions of pounds in equipment to prevent future flight disruption.
Just before Christmas, Gatwick was forced to close for three days because of drone sightings, grounding about 1,000 flights.
With planes normally taking off at frequent intervals, the disruption is likely to have knock-on effects for the rest of the evening.
A spokeswoman from the Metropolitan Police said they were called at just after 5pm to "reports of a sighting of a drone in the vicinity of Heathrow Airport".
"As a precautionary measure, Heathrow Airport has stopped departures and officers based at Heathrow are currently investigating the reports with colleagues from Heathrow Airport," she added.
The alleged sighting came four days after the airport reported they were investing millions of pounds in equipment to prevent future flight disruption.
In response to the reported sighting, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has said: "We are in contact with Heathrow Airport concerning the drone sighting. I have already spoken to both the home secretary and defence secretary and the military are preparing to deploy the equipment used at Gatwick at Heathrow quickly should it prove necessary."
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said anti-drone military equipment could be used at Heathrow.
“We are in contact with @HeathrowAirport concerning the drone sighting. I have already spoken to both the Home Secretary and Defence Secretary and the military are preparing to deploy the equipment used at Gatwick at Heathrow quickly should it prove necessary,” the Transport Department quoted him as saying.
The Independent's travel editor Simon Calder said that coming after the drone sightings at Gatwick, if it was a targeted attack, airports across Europe would be worried.
A Heathrow spokesman said airport staff were continuing to monitor the situation after flights began again.
He said: "We continue to work closely with the Met Police to respond to reports of drones at Heathrow.
"Based on standard operating procedures, working with Air Traffic Control and the Met Police, we have resumed departures out of Heathrow following a short suspension.
"We continue to monitor this situation and apologise to any passengers that were affected by this disruption."
Department of Transport chiefs were already planning to introduce new police powers and safety rules to tackle the misuse of drones and improve safety following the three-day Gatwick shut-down just before Christmas.
More than 5,000 people responded to a consultation.
A Twitter user called Marko posted: "Well who would've thought that shortly after Gatwick I'd be sitting in a plane at Heathrow waiting for another drone to be removed from the runway area."
