Gatwick Airport suspends flights after drone scare

Busy airport was closed to incoming flights for nearly an hour on Sunday afternoon

Flights were diverted from landing at Gatwick Airport on Sunday. Reuters

Reports of drone activity in a nearby airfield forced London Gatwick Airport to suspend incoming flights for nearly an hour on Sunday.

Due to the alert, the airport said it had diverted 12 flights.

The incident comes after the airport had cancelled or diverted about 1,000 flights from December 19-21 in 2018 because of drone reports.

No culprit was found and there was criticism over the amount of time it took for the runway at the airport to reopen.

A Gatwick spokesman was unable to say whether a drone had been discovered after the latest reported sighting.

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“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," the spokesman said.

“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.