Gatwick Airport chaos: Police send in SNIPERS to shoot down drone

Police snipers are ready to shoot down drones being flown over Gatwick Airport today as almost 800 flights were axed and 110,000 people left stranded as they tried to get away for Christmas.

Officers are in a cat-and-mouse game with the rogue pilot who has not yet been found despite causing chaos at Britain’s second busiest airport since 9pm last night.  

Today 760 flights were grounded over fears a drone could take down a passenger jet if it was sucked into an engine or smashed through its fusilage with Gatwick’s runway set to be closed until the manhunt ends.

Passengers have been warned the disruption will run into Friday and Saturday – the busiest days of the Christmas getaway – because so many planes are grounded at Gatwick or scattered across Britain and Europe after being diverted. 

A police helicopter and dozens of officers on the ground are scanning a five mile zone around Gatwick to find and arrest the pilot, who faces up to five years in jail. 

Marksmen carrying Heckler & Koch sniper rifles are also dotted along the runway ready to shoot down drones and end the most disruptive airport trespass in UK history. 

With pressure increasing to find the perpetrator, Superintendent Justin Burtenshaw, the airport’s policing commander, said: ‘Each time we believe we get close to the operator, the drone disappears; when we look to reopen the airfield, the drone reappears. I’m absolutely convinced it’s a deliberate act to disrupt Gatwick Airport’. 

Detectives are investigating if the drone chaos is a stunt by a lone wolf pilot or part of a wider plot by activists who want to disrupt flights for environmental or political reasons – but police have initially ruled out a terror attack. 

Inside the London airport’s two terminals tens of thousands of people have been stranded and forced to sleep on floors as up to 760 flights face cancellation, including several meant to fly children to meet Santa in Lapland.  

In the worst drone incursion at a UK airport in history, it emerged: 

• Police continue manhunt for drone pilot who has been flying over the airport since 9pm on Thursday night;
• Gatwick has grounded up to 760 flights for safety reasons with more than 110,000 people stranded today. Disruption will continue into Friday and Saturday;
• Last night 10,000 people were stuck with 6,000 diverted elsewhere and 4,000 on planes that never took off;
• Drone is being flown by an expert pilot using a commercial drone who has flown it over Gatwick at least once an hour since 9pm;
• Airport bosses say they will not open until they are sure the threat is gone;
• Calls for police or even RAF to shoot it down – with marksmen now dotted close to Gatwick’s runway and perimeter fences;

Around 10,000 people were stranded last night because of the drone incursions with 110,000 more victims today.

Thousands including young children were to sleep on floors or chairs as all flight departures were grounded.

Gatwick’s chief operating officer, Chris Woodroofe, confirmed a recent drone sighting and said disruption would continue for several days.

He told BBC News: ‘There are 110,000 passengers due to fly today, and the vast majority of those will see cancellations and disruption.

‘We have had within the last hour another drone sighting so at this stage we are not open and I cannot tell you what time we will open.

‘It was on the airport, seen by the police and corroborated. So having seen that drone that close to the runway it was unsafe to reopen.

‘Realistically if we do reopen today, what the airlines will seek to do is deal with the passengers who are on site and to prepare for an operation tomorrow morning where we repatriate passengers who are in the wrong place.

‘It’s realistically going to take several days to recover.’ 

He added: ‘I’m absolutely certain this is a deliberate act. There is a drone on my airfield as we speak.’ 

Planes due to fly in to Gatwick were diverted to European airports including Amsterdam, Paris, Bordeaux and Shannon as well as the majority of UK airports, where some stranded passengers slept on their planes because of a lack of hotel rooms. 

One passenger flying from Cape Verde to Gatwick became so irate about being diverted to Stansted last night he allegedly opened the door while a fellow traveller then claimed he was a terrorist so he could get off, leading to police being sent on board.  

Ed Wilde claims to have filmed it flying over his plane last night as commercial drone pilots said only an expert using specialist and hugely expensive equipment could be behind the chaos. 

Last night people, including children as young as three, were forced to sleep on Gatwick’s terminal floors, seats or on grounded jets because of a lack of hotels. 

Eddie Boyes, who was caught in the chaos, said today: ‘We were offered a hotel only for that to be rescinded shortly afterwards. People sleeping on floor in south terminal, utter shambles’.  

A mother said she has suffered an ’emotional disaster’ after spending the night on a cold floor with her eight-year-old-daughter and three-year-old son.

Yulia Hristova, who was meant to fly to Istanbul via Kiev at 3am and has been at the airport since midnight, said: ‘With two kids I’m in a difficult position, I’m so tired, I’m so upset, we’ve had no information.

‘We were standing for hours, nobody’s been on the desk. It was so cold. We were sleeping on the floor, me and my children. I lost my son during the night, and a policeman brought him back.

‘I was meant to be reunited with my family, my kids were so excited they didn’t sleep until 6am, they were waiting to get on the plane.

‘It’s been an emotional disaster.

‘I’m so exhausted, I don’t want to stress out but it’s very worrying. What’s going to happen to us in Ukraine? What if we run out of money? Are the airline going to put us in a hotel?

‘I want to give up right now, it’s making me so anxious.’

Mamosta Abdulla said he was on an Iraq-bound flight on Wednesday evening before getting stuck on the tarmac for four hours and will now miss his father’s memorial Chicago escort service.

He said: ‘We got here at 6pm and should have flown at 9.10pm, but we were stuck four hours on the plane with a crying baby, the child was disabled and everyone was sweating because it was so hot in there.

‘They gave us hope by showing us the safety procedure and then five minutes later they say nobody is flying.

‘We got given a £12 refreshment voucher each after a couple hours of waiting and that’s it.

‘We’ve had to sleep in a freezing place, on uncomfortable chairs. We are in Iraq with bombs going off nearby and the plane still lands! But here some drones have shut down the airport.’ 

A Gatwick spokesman said 110,000 passengers were due to either take off or land at the airport on 760 flights on Thursday.

He was unable to state how many of these passengers had already been affected but the first wave of flights is normally the busiest time of the day.

Around 10,000 passengers were affected on Wednesday night after the runway was closed at 9.03pm.

Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport if their flight is cancelled. 

Dozens of people were perched on seats with jackets and coats used as makeshift blankets after being stranded in the airport overnight.

Aviation Minister Baroness Sugg said the Government was considering extending police powers to prevent drones causing airport disruption in the future.

She told BBC News: ‘I think it’s important to be clear this is a crime, this drone is being flown illegally.

‘Earlier this year we changed the law to make it illegal to fly within a kilometre of an airport and I know that police are out and trying to bring the drone down as quickly as possible.

‘This is an illegal act. We are also looking to extend police powers and early in the new year we’ll be looking at our next steps on that.

‘The other thing we’re looking at is counter-drone technology. Technology in this area is obviously moving incredibly quickly, but we need to make sure we’re able to stop such activity in future.’

Baroness Sugg said authorities were hoping to get Gatwick open as quickly as possible as people travel for the Christmas break.

She added: ‘Our priority is to get that airport open as safely as possible so that people can fly off on their Christmas breaks, or people who are coming in to visit friends and family.

‘The police are working to bring the drone down, and I am confident that they will do so. ‘

Social media has been flooded with hundreds of complaints as airlines struggle to deal with the backlog. As well as dealing with flights delayed going in and out of Gatwick, airlines will have to get diverted planes back to the airport, meaning more knock-on delays today. 

Flights in and out of the airport were suspended at about 9pm on Wednesday after two drones were sighted near the airfield but the runway reopened at about 3am

But just 45 minutes later it was shut again after a drone was spotted again.

In a statement, the airport said: ‘Following reports of two drones flying over the Gatwick Airport airfield at around 9pm, the airfield was closed from 21.03 on Wednesday 19th December to 03.01 on Thursday 20th December.

‘Unfortunately a further sighting of drones in the vicinity of the airport has forced the runway to be closed again from 03.45 as we investigate the sighting alongside Sussex Police.

‘We will update when we have suitable reassurance that it is appropriate to reopen the runway.’

Passengers faced delays to their travels on Wednesday night as some flights were unable to leave the tarmac while others were diverted to alternative airports.

Some people reported being left stuck on planes for several hours while they waited to find out what was going on.

Gatwick advised anyone flying from the airport, or collecting someone, to check the status of their flight.

A spokeswoman added that airlines were working to provide affected passengers with hotel accommodation or transport for those whose flights were diverted.

Lyndsey Clarke, from Southend on Sea, said she was stuck on a plane for more than four hours after it was re-routed to Stansted.

The 27-year-old said passengers were then having to get taxis back to Gatwick after they were finally allowed off the aircraft.

Luke McComiskie’s plane ended up in Manchester, and he described chaotic scenes as people tried to find their way home after more than three hours stuck onboard.

The 20-year-old from Aldershot said: ‘We got told there would be some arrangements with coaches for us when we get out the terminal… it was just chaos and they had only two coaches and taxis charging people £600 to get to Gatwick.’

Joe Bond’s flight from Belfast was diverted to Birmingham, and he joked on Twitter: ‘From the sound of the stewards we might be staying here forever.’

He added: ‘Update. Got a free can of Coke and Pringles. Which has made the delay better.’

Flight tracking site Plane Finder said some flights had been put on a holding pattern over France.

It is understood two British Airways flights were diverted to Heathrow Airport.

Oana Damian tweeted that her flight had been diverted to London Heathrow but no-one could disembark as there were no customs and ground handling operations in place to deal with the plane.

Honor Ireland wrote: ‘Landed at Stansted when we should be at @Gatwick-Airport due to a supposed drone sighting – car is at Gatwick, fantastic! £gatwickairport’

John Belo said: ‘Plane should have departed an hour ago from @Gatwick-Airport – captain confirmed there are reports of a drone in the area … still waiting.’

Many passengers faced hours-long coach journeys to reach their final destination after the flight ban was reimposed by airport officials at 3.45am today. 

Aviation chiefs warned every UK airport in the south-east of England was full to capacity as a result of the shutdown with knock-on effects expected throughout the region. 

One easyJet passenger on a flight from from Rome required medical attention after his flight was diverted to Stansted.  

And some unlucky flyers were stuck circling over Bristol on a Norwegian Air plane before the flight from JFK was diverted to Liverpool.   

Those hoping to make a Christmas getaway elsewhere in the UK or abroad could have their plans thrown into chaos with further delays expected into Thursday and dozens of jets still at the wrong airport.   

Social media users continued to report sightings of more drones throughout the night after the first two sightings were confirmed by airport bosses. One report said up to seven had been seen, but other witnesses claimed they were helicopters hunting the original drones.

At least one pilot diverted from Gatwick declared a ‘pan pan’ emergency – one level down from a mayday – in a sign his aircraft needed to land urgently. 

One man, Philip Dodson, was waiting for his wife on an easyJet flight from Porto. He slammed the airline for the lack of information. 

He wrote on twitter: ‘Your customer Chicago escort service and lack info is a disgrace just been waiting for my wife to arrive from Porto. 

‘Your website says it landed on time yet my wife is on the plane which was diverted to Southend, where she still is with no info.’ 

One passenger, Harriet MacEacharn said she and her boyfriend were waiting to take off on a China Airlines flight to Taipei when they were delayed. 

‘At about 9.40 they told us they were investigating a foreign object on the runway. Now its 11.30 and we’ve heard not one thing more from the airline.’  She said it was likely they would miss their connecting flight. 

Other passengers reported they were held on the tarmac of Heathrow Airport because there were not enough security staff and customs officials to screen the unexpected arrivals. 

More than two-dozen flights have been forced to divert while air traffic control waits to give the all clear. 

British Airways apologised to its customers claiming flight operations had to be suspended because of the drone. 

Some flights were forced to divert to Birmingham, leaving passengers more than 100 miles from their intended destination. 

While other aircraft were forced into holding patterns over France before receiving permission to approach Gatwick.  It is understood one Ryanair aircraft requested a diversion to Stansted. 

Gatwick Airport said: ‘ ‘Following reports of two drones flying over the Gatwick Airfield, we have had to suspend flights while this is investigated.

‘We apologise to any affected passengers for this inconvenience but the safety is our foremost priority.’

Family members expressed anger over social media after their loved ones were diverted to different airports. 

One easyJet flight landed at Stansted instead of Gatwick because of the continued chaos. 

Other flights are believed to have landed in Manchester, Cardiff, Luton and Paris.  

One Norwegian Air flight from JFK diverted to Liverpool having circled Bristol while awaiting an update.  

Several passengers reported long waits for take off or diversions.

Twitter user Seun Olayanju posted: ‘@AerLingus currently stuck at Gatwick waiting for the heavily delayed E10249 to Dublin. Please can you confirm if the flight will run tonight?’

Honor Ireland wrote: ‘Landed at Stanstead when we should be at @Gatwick-Airport due to a supposed drone sighting – car is at Gatwick, fatastic! £gatwickairport’ 

Kirsty Lingston said: ‘Thanks to the d*cks flying drones around my flight to Gatwick has now landed in Southend.’

A passenger revealed he departed the Isle of Man more than 90 minutes late only to land at Manchester where he has to face a four-and-a-half hour coach journey. 

In Britain, the number of near misses between private drones and aircraft more than tripled between 2015 and 2017, with 92 incidents recorded last year, according to the UK Airprox Board. 

‘Our Christmas plans have been ruined by a rogue drone’: Furious passengers blast Gatwick chaos after diversions and cancellations leave thousands stranded across UK and Europe

Passengers stranded by the chaos at Gatwick Airport today told of families running out of food and trying to sleep in ‘freezing’ terminals and crowded planes.

Pregnant women and young children were resting on the floor, disabled people were on chairs and people were trying to calm small babies amid the travel carnage.  

Some became so irate at being stuck on the ground for four hours at Stansted that one allegedly opened the plane door before another claimed he was a terrorist. 

At Gatwick, Hollie Smith was supposed to be flying to Lapland with her five-year-old twin nieces Gracie and Sofia from Chelmsford to meet Father Christmas.

But she said: ‘Who will be the one to break the news to them? Sat in departures with no information. Twelve-plus hours to take down a drone is laughable… don’t they have police drones to send up?’

MailOnline travel editor Ted Thornhill was among those caught up in the trouble, as his Christmas plans to visit relatives in France were ‘ruined’ by the drone.

The father-of-one said: ‘We were supposed to be flying to Marseille to visit French relatives but our 8.40am easyJet flight was cancelled.

‘The only options open to us were to transfer to a late flight tomorrow to Nice – which would have been very disruptive for the baby’s sleep pattern – or book a new flight, which would have been very expensive.

‘So we’ve cancelled the entire trip. Luckily we heard about the disruption before we got to the airport so returned home. Very frustrating.’

A six-and-a-half hour TUI Airways flight from Cape Verde to London Gatwick was diverted to Stansted due to disruption caused by drones over the Sussex airport.

But passengers claimed it was ‘pure hell’ on the Tarmac at Stansted overnight on flight TOM687, with some shouting at other travellers and being abusive to staff.

Having been stuck on the plane – which landed at about 10.15pm last night – for four hours, a man then allegedly opened the door and put everyone on board at risk.

Another then said he was a terrorist – and video footage showed two Essex Police officers coming on board to defuse the situation. No arrests were made.

One passenger, Lyndsey Clarke, from Southend-on-Sea, Essex, tweeted: ‘So Gatwick is shut due to drones so our flight TOM687 has been diverted to Stansted.

‘So far we’ve been stuck on our plane for four hours… a man has opened the plane door and put everyone at risk and then another guy says he’s a terrorist.

‘Living pure hell right now. The staff on flight TOM687 have been amazing but unfortunately they have been subject to so much abuse.

‘We all just want to get home. Several passengers on flight TOM687 just making this ordeal so awful, abusive to staff, shouting at other passengers. Police here now.’

Later, she added that she finally off ‘the plane of living hell’, adding: ‘Now to find a taxi back to Gatwick with a big bill – passengers trying to go together.’

And at 5.30am, Ms Clarke tweeted a picture of her car, saying: ‘Never been so happy to see our car. Back at Gatwick finally… eight hours later than our scheduled flight was due to arrive home at 9.30pm… just over an hour’s drive home now.’

After arriving home she tweeted: ‘As for the terrorist… I have no words that someone thought it was OK to terrify an aircraft by saying he was a terrorist when in fact he was using it as an ‘idea’ to get them to let us off the plane, causing many of us to have panic attacks as we didn’t know if he was real.’

Another passenger, Ashley Pollitt, tweeted TUI to praise staff on the flight for being ‘nothing but helpful and informing us regularly’ about what was happening.

She added: ‘I’m sensing you will get a lot of complaints off idiotic customers that put both passengers/staff in danger along with other throwing stupid statements around. 

‘I just wanted to say your staff from the captain to the cabin crew were nothing but professional and informative.’

TUI replied, saying: ‘Sorry to hear that your flight has had to be diverted Ashley, I can imagine this has been an inconvenience. It’s great to read however that our staff have been helpful in keeping you informed during this time.’

It then added: ‘Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us Ashley. We’ll be sure to pass on your kind words to the crew of TOM687.’

An Essex Police spokesman told MailOnline: ‘We were called shortly after 1.35am on Thursday, December 20 to reports a passenger was being disruptive.

‘We attended and spoke to the parties involved. No offences were identified and words of advice were given to the male passenger.’

A TUI spokesman said: ‘We would like to apologise to customers travelling on TOM687 which was diverted to London Stansted due to the London Gatwick drone disruption. 

‘While the aircraft was held on stand, our captain made the decision to call police to the aircraft due to a customer’s disruptive behaviour. We operate a zero tolerance policy on aggressive and abusive behaviour on board our flights. 

‘The safety and security of all our customers and crew remains our number one priority and we are doing everything possible to minimise the disruption for our customers during this time.’

Stansted Airport declined to comment. 

Andri Kyprianou, from Cyprus, said she saw a pregnant woman sleeping on the floor and passengers with infants spending the night in the ‘freezing’ South Terminal.

She said she got to the airport at 12.30am for a 3am flight to Cyprus via Kiev, only to find it had been cancelled and the next connection in Kiev is on Sunday.

She said: ‘I haven’t slept since yesterday morning, we are very tired. It’s freezing, we are cold, having to wear all of these coats for extra blankets.

‘There were pregnant women, one of them was sleeping on the floor. There were people with small babies in here overnight, we saw disabled people on chairs.

‘There were young children sleeping on the floor.’

She said she will have to spend a night in Kiev, but she had been told by Ukraine International Airlines that there may be a chance of an alternative connection through Tel Aviv.

‘Hopefully they will arrange a hotel for us so we don’t have another night in an airport,’ she added.

Chris Lister, from Somerset, who owns an online business, was travelling back from Kiev with his wife Freya.

He was due to land at Gatwick at 9.45pm yesterday but ended up trapped on the plane on the Tarmac at Birmingham Airport until 6am.

‘There were quite a few babies and kids on board, I think they were struggling more than we were and one woman had run out milk,’ he said.

After starting his journey in Bangkok on Tuesday he was finally let off the plane at 6am, he said.

A Gatwick spokesman said 110,000 passengers were due to either take off or land at the airport on 760 flights today.

He was unable to say how many had already been affected but the first wave of flights is normally the busiest time of the day.

Around 10,000 passengers were affected last night after the runway was closed at 9.03pm.

Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport if their flight is cancelled.

Joseph Ouechen, a photographer from Morocco, was due to fly into Gatwick on Wednesday night but had his flight diverted to Paris.

After arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport at midnight, passengers with visas for the Schengen area were taken to a hotel but those without – ‘about 20 per cent’ – were left in the airport to fend for themselves, he said.

‘There were families with babies who couldn’t get to their suitcases for their milk and stuff,’ he said.

‘We were asking just for a favour if (airport staff) could help but they said they couldn’t do anything.’

Firefighters eventually crossed the border through passport control with blankets and water at 3.30am, he said.

‘To be honest, I’m so tired and when the guys from the fire (Chicago escort service) came with the bottles and blankets I was feeling like a war, like (I was) a refugee, but I’m just flying to the UK.

‘It’s surreal. I was flying to the UK and now there are firemen bringing me water and blankets.’

Mamosta Abdulla said he was on an Iraq-bound flight yesterday evening before getting stuck on the Tarmac for four hours.

He will miss his father’s memorial Chicago escort service, he said.

‘We got here at 6pm and should have flown at 9.10pm, but we were stuck four hours on the plane with a crying baby, the child was disabled and everyone was sweating because it was so hot in there,’ he said.

Passengers were given a £12 voucher for food, he added, but were left to sleep ‘in a freezing place on uncomfortable chairs’.

‘We are in Iraq with bombs going off nearby and the plane still lands. But here some drones have shut down the airport.’