Three Planes Diverted Following Possible Gatwick Drone Sighting

All three passenger planes eventually landed more than 90 minutes after their scheduled arrival time.
Gatwick airport had been closed in December after drones were spotted over the airfield.
Gatwick airport had been closed in December after drones were spotted over the airfield.
PA Wire/PA Images

Three flights have been diverted to Stansted Airport following reports of a possible drone sighting at Gatwick.

The two easyJet flights - one from Barcelona and one from Amsterdam - both initially got sent to Stansted before taking off again to land at Gatwick.

A British Airways flight from Heraklion was also diverted.

All three passenger planes eventually landed at Gatwick more than 90 minutes after their scheduled arrival time.

A Stansted spokesman said he did not anticipate any further diversions on Sunday.

A number of drone sightings forced Britain’s second-busiest airport to shut down for 33 hours in the week leading up to Christmas, disrupting 140,000 passengers’ journeys.

The chaos continued despite a huge police operation and the Army was eventually called to bring the incident under control.

Military anti-drone equipment, which can detect the flying machines and disable them by jamming radio signals, remained at the airport until March.

Both Gatwick and Heathrow are investing millions in their own systems to prevent future flight disruption.

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