Gatwick Airport disruption: Pair arrested over drone chaos revealed as middle-aged man and women from nearby town

Patrick Grafton-Green22 December 2018
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The two people arrested over the Gatwick drone chaos have been revealed as a 47-year-old man and 53-year-old woman from a nearby town.

The pair, from Crawley in West Sussex, were arrested in the town around five miles from the airport on Friday night.

Sussex Police said the pair are being held on suspicion of "disrupting services of civil aviation aerodrome to endanger or likely to endanger safety of operations or persons".

Superintendent James Collis said: "Our investigations are still ongoing and our activities at the airport continue to build resilience to detect and mitigate further incursions from drones, by deploying a range of tactics.

Gatwick chaos - In pictures

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"We continue to urge the public, passengers and the wider community around Gatwick to be vigilant and support us by contacting us immediately if they believe they have any information that can help us in bringing those responsible to justice.

"The arrests we have made are a result of our determination to keep the public safe from harm, every line of inquiry will remain open to us until we are confident that we have mitigated further threats to the safety of passengers."

An airplane takes off at Gatwick Airport after the airport reopened to flights on Saturday
REUTERS

Meanwhile, Gatwick Airport said on Saturday morning that the runway was open but passengers were urged to check with their airline before travelling.

Long queues and some knock-on delays remained at the airport as airlines worked to clear a backlog of flights.

"Many people will be due to fly today and there will be longer delays perhaps," a Gatwick spokesman said.

"But broadly things are going in the right direction. By the end of the weekend, things should be back to normal."

Around 1,000 flights have been cancelled or diverted since drones were spotted inside the perimeter of the UK's second biggest airport on Wednesday night, affecting approximately 140,000 passengers.

An airport spokesman said earlier: "Our runway is open and we aim to run a full schedule on Saturday December 22 - 757 flights scheduled today, carrying 124,484 passengers.

"Safety is Gatwick's top priority and we are grateful for passengers' continued patience as we work to get them to their final destination in time for Christmas."

Flights were briefly grounded at the airport on Friday evening after a fresh sighting at around 5.10pm but military measures reassured operators it was safe to reopen the runway shortly afterwards.

Military equipment was used to stop further drone disruption while a range of tactics are in place if any unmanned aircraft are seen inside the perimeter.

One piece of equipment believed to have been deployed at the airport is the Israeli-developed Drone Dome system, which can detect drones using radar.

It can also jam communications between the drone and its operator, enabling authorities to take control of and land the device.

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