Gatwick Airport: No drone found after flights disrupted

The airport suffered major disruption in 2018 after drone sightings

No drone was found after a suspected sighting of one led to flights being disrupted at Gatwick on Sunday, the airport said.

Operations were suspended temporarily just before 13:45 BST but resumed about 50 minutes later.

Twelve inbound flights were diverted to other airports during the incident but all returned to Gatwick on Sunday.

A spokesperson for the West Sussex airport said passenger safety was its "absolute priority".

They said: "Passenger safety is the airport's absolute priority and, following established procedures, operations at London Gatwick were suspended temporarily at 13:44, while investigations into the sighting of a suspected drone close to the airfield took place.

"This investigation followed sightings from a pilot and also airfield staff about a suspected drone close to the flight path of approaching aircraft.

"Following further investigation, no drone was found and the airfield reopened at 14:35."

Gatwick was shut for more than a day in December 2018 after drone sightings.

No-one was ever prosecuted over the incident that caused chaos for travellers, affecting more than 1,000 flights and about 140,000 passengers.

Since then, experts have been working on systems to prevent drones disrupting operations at major airports.

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