Gatwick Airport forced to shut runway after 'suspected drone incident'

Gatwick is Britain's second business airport and last year had a total of 32.8 million passengers.

A spokesman for the airport said this afternoon: “Passenger safety is the airport’s absolute priority and – following established procedures – operations at London Gatwick were suspended temporarily at 1344, while investigations into the sighting of a suspected drone close to the airfield took place.

“These investigations have now completed and the airfield reopened at 1435.

"Twelve inbound aircraft were diverted to other airports during the investigation, however we expect many of these to return to London Gatwick today.”

British Airways said one of its flights was affected, with it landing at Stansted before refuelling and returning to Gatwick.

Meanwhile, an easyJet flight from Venice was forced to land at Luton Airport.

Gatwick was previously forced to divert flights in the build up to Christmas in 2018 because of reports of a drone.

On that occasion, around 1,000 flights between December 19-21 were redirected.

No-one was ever prosecuted over the incident despite a lengthy police investigation.

Last year, drone users were warned of the dangers of flying the unmanned aerial vehicles too close to airports.

Jonathan Nicholson from the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said: "Drones can be great fun but people must fly them safely and follow the rules.

"Breaking the CAA's Dronecode and failing to fly responsibly could result in criminal prosecution, including imprisonment.

"Anyone operating a drone must do so responsibly and observe all relevant rules and regulations. The rules for flying drones are designed to keep everybody safe."

The flight restriction zone extends to a 2.5 nautical mile circle radius from the runway with extensions out with protecting the flightpath for arrival and departures.