Heathrow airport drone investigated by police and military

The military helps police after observations of a drone temporarily stopped flight at Heathrow airport on Tuesday.

Scotland Yard said a "full criminal investigation" had been launched in the incident ̵[ads1]1; and those officers were among those who were supposed to see the drone.

Departures from West London Airport were suspended for about an hour.

It comes after thousands of passengers were caught up in disturbances in Gatwick airport last month following reports of drone observations.

Heathrow Airport, which also works with Met Police, said it was monitoring the situation and apologizing to the passengers affected by the interference. [19659000] How can a drone cause so much chaos?

& # 39; Comprehensive search & # 39;

Meter Commander Stuart Cundy said drone sighting was reported just after 17:00 GMT,

"We are conducting extensive searches around the Heathrow area to identify someone who might be responsible for the operation of the drone," he said.

"With departure tours we stopped as a precaution. I want to realize that the illegal operation of drones at an airport is extremely dangerous.

" According to the Aviation Safety Act, an offense can threaten the safety of an aircraft; Anyone found guilty of this offense can face the law of life.

"We are leveraging significant resources – both in terms of officers and equipment – to monitor the airspace around Heathrow and to quickly detect and disrupt illegal drone activity, some of which are as a result of learning from the events in Gatwick."

While confirmed that military assistance had been taken in, he would not discuss their tactics in detail.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said during the incident that he was in contact with the airport about drone sighting, and had spoken to the home secretary and defense secretary.

A defense ministry spokesman said: "We are distributing special equipment to Heathrow Airport upon request of the Metropolitan Police."

BBC comrade Martin Roberts, who works with drones, said he was driving at the M25 past the Heathrow airport at 5:45 GMT when he saw what he meant was a drone.

"I could see, I would say about 300 feet up, very bright, stationary flashing red and green lights, over the Harmondsworth area," he said.

"I could tell that it was a drone – these things have quite distinctive light – not a helicopter.

" The lights were very close together. It was a very clear night and the object was stationary, it became very, very weak. I could see it very clearly, I would say in about four to five minutes. "

Gatwick said last week that it had spent £ 5m to prevent future attacks. Heathrow confirmed that it would be buying systems to protect against drones.

And it was announced this week that the police would be given new forces to cope with the illegal use of drones.

BBC correspondent Tom Burridge said while the "significant" incident did not cause the same disturbance as in Gatwick, it raises the question of how British airports can handle drones.

While they Looking at the latest technology, it is clear that they are "playing captives", he said – adding that the airline industry had called for "drastic action on this for months. "

Alice Evans, BBC London, at Heathrow

A few hours after the first reports from a drone in the sky over Heathrow, it was as usual in the terminal 5 departure lounge – in a low blow to Gatwick, one member of sta ff told me that is because "we are a good airport."

Although the planes were up and running quite quickly, there are still many passengers who have had disturbances tonight.

One of them is Catriona Walsh, who was on a plane from Basel

Ms Walsh, who did a couple of days of work despite being on maternity leave, said she did not come to her last stop in Wales for a couple of hours now as she She missed her train.

Her flight was held on the runway for about 50 minutes when the staff told the passengers about the drone.

"It was all quiet – frustrating than worrying," she said.

Michael, a fellow passenger on the plane who did not want to give his last name was less optimistic

"I was worried that I had to camp here," he said.

He said the problems here and in Gatwick have shown "exactly how to close a country – this country – down", adding that the police need to "just shoot down drones" as soon as they are observed.

More than 140,000 passengers in Gatwick were affected during 36 hours of chaos between December 19 and 21.

About 1000 aircraft were canceled there over three days due to drone observations.

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