Gatwick Airport was compelled to close its runway for nearly an hour because of a “suspected drone incident”.
A Gatwick spokesperson mentioned: “Operations at London Gatwick have been suspended quickly at 1.44pm, whereas investigations into the sighting of a suspected drone near the airfield occurred.
“These investigations have now completed and the airfield reopened at 2.35pm.
“Twelve inbound plane have been diverted to different airports in the course of the investigation, nevertheless we count on many of those to return to London Gatwick right this moment.”
They added that passenger safety was the airport’s “absolute precedence”.
The disrupted flights included a British Airways flight from Mallorca to Gatwick, diverted to Stansted Airport, and an easyJet flight from Venice, diverted to Luton Airport.
Landings have since resumed on the airport, in Crawley, West Sussex.
Gatwick Airport’s runway was shut down for 30 hours in December 2018 because of an incident involving a number of drone sightings.
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The airport, Britain’s second busiest, mentioned there have been greater than 100 drone sightings across the website over three days.
The 2018 incident was the primary time a serious airport within the UK had been shut down because of drones.
The disruption affected greater than 140,000 passengers throughout a complete of 1,000 flights.
Two suspects from the city of Crawley – only some miles from the airport – have been arrested on the time. However, they have been later launched, with no additional motion taken.
No one has ever been charged over the incident, which Gatwick insisted was a complicated, malicious and well-planned assault.
As a results of the incident, the federal government launched new laws to increase no-fly zones round airports from 0.6miles (1km) to 3 miles.
Those who recklessly or negligently endanger an plane with a drone can resist 5 years in jail below UK regulation.
Source: information.sky.com”