Gatwick airport drones event leads to arrests
Passengers stranded at Gatwick.
Athanasios Gioumpasis / Getty Images
The Sussex police said on Saturday that they had taken a man and a woman in custody and suspected of disturbing the services of Britain's second-most traffic-intensive airport "to have hit chaos at London's Gatwick airport, threatening or likely to interfere with security of operations or people. "
Gatwick's airport was closed for more than a day after the drones were discovered nearby on Wednesday night's local time. It reopened Friday morning before they were closed again shortly after another drone sighting. The closures caused problems for tens of thousands of holidaymakers, as aircraft were canceled, delayed or diverted.
In a statement on Saturday about the arrest, the sussex police, superintendent James Collis, said the department's investigation was ongoing.
"Every line of inquiry will remain open to us before we are confident we have reduced further threats to passenger safety," Collis said. He urged everyone with information about the drone events to contact the Sussex police and said the department continued to urge "the public, passengers and the wider community around Gatwick" to be "vigilant."
#GatwickDrones | Around 10am today we made 2 arrests in connection with criminal drone activity at Gatwick Airport. Proactive surveys are still ongoing: We encourage the public to contact us if they believe that they have information that can help us further. https://t.co/dOmKw4GnfO
– Sussex Police (@sussex_police) December 22, 2018
The police said there are no indications that the drone events were "terror related", CBS News reported, but in a tweet Friday, the department called the drone burglary a "deliberate and serious act."
Gatwick's CEO said the same in a Thursday note, which marked the incident "a highly targeted activity … designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption during Christmas." Police tweeted on Thursday at The drones appeared to be industrial models .
The 47-year-old man and the 54-year-old woman were arrested late Friday in the town of Crawley, where they are from, police said.
In an on-site statement on Saturday, Gatwick said it was scheduled to run a full schedule of flights over the weekend, but said it expected further cancellations and delays, and passengers were advised to check with airlines before heading
First published December 22, 11:25 PM
Update at 11:46 am: Adds mention of tweets by the Sussex police and statement by Gatwick CEO about the deliberate nature of the incident. 19659008] CNET Holiday Gift Guide: The place to find the best technological gifts in 2018.
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