The British Army has deployed "specialist equipment" to Gatwick Airport as the travel chaos caused by drone activity shows no sign of abating.

It comes as Easyjet has cancelled all of its flights from Gatwick for the rest of the day.

The airline, the biggest operator at the airport, said there was "no indication" when Gatwick would reopen.

Tens of thousands of passengers on several airlines have been disrupted by drones flying over the airport.

In a tweet, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson had confirmed the military deployment.

He said: "The armed forces have a range of unique capabilities and this isn't something we would usually deploy but we are there to assist and do everything we can so that they are in a position to open the airport at the earliest opportunity."

Officials from various government departments have been meeting and the prime minister is being kept informed.

Theresa May's spokesman said: "This is a serious incident, it's causing widespread disruption for passengers.

"The intention, obviously, is that it should be brought to a close as soon as possible."

Sussex Police said the drone activity was not terror-related but was a "deliberate act" of disruption, using "industrial specification" drones.

Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate agreed it was a "highly targeted activity" and added: "It cannot be right that drones can close a vital part of our national infrastructure in this way. This is obviously a relatively new technology and we need to think through together the right solutions to make sure it cannot happen again."

He is still "not in a position to say when it will be safe to reopen the airport".

About 110,000 passengers on 760 flights were due to fly on Thursday, but 633 flights were cancelled.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: "We'll do everything we can to ensure that if Gatwick is not open again quickly that we can get [passengers] away from other airports."

He could not confirm whether the perpetrators were close to being caught but added: "There's a huge amount of effort going on - we've got up-to-date technology, we've brought special technology into Gatwick to try and track this down."

What happened?

The shutdown started just after 21:00 on Wednesday when two drones were spotted flying "over the perimeter fence and into where the runway operates from".

The runway briefly reopened at 03:01 on Thursday but was closed again about 45 minutes later due to "a further sighting of drones".

The airport said at about 12:00 a drone had been spotted "in the last hour".

Gatwick chief operating officer Chris Woodroofe said: "The police are looking for the operator and that is the way to disable the drone."

He said police had not wanted to shoot the devices down because of the risk from stray bullets.

He said it remained unsafe to reopen the airport after the drone had been spotted too close to the runway.

Mr Woodroofe added: "If we were to reopen today we will first repatriate passengers who are in the wrong place which could take several days."

The police operation

More than 20 police units from two forces are searching for the perpetrator, who could face up to five years in jail.

Supt Justin Burtenshaw, head of armed policing for Sussex and Surrey, described attempts to catch whoever was controlling the drones as "painstaking" because it was "a difficult and challenging thing to locate them".

"Each time we believe we get close to the operator, the drone disappears; when we look to reopen the airfield, the drone reappears," he said.

How have passengers been affected?

About 10,000 passengers were affected overnight on Wednesday and Gatwick said 110,000 people were due to either take off or land at the airport on Thursday.

Incoming planes were diverted to other airports including London Heathrow, Luton, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow, Paris and Amsterdam.

Crowds of travellers spent the morning waiting inside Gatwick's terminal for updates, while others reported being stuck on grounded planes for hours.


Airports and drones: The law

In the UK it is illegal to fly a drone within 1km of an airport or airfield boundary and flying above 400ft (120m) - which increases the risk of a collision with a manned aircraft - is also banned.

Endangering the safety of an aircraft is a criminal offence which can carry a prison sentence of five years.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-46640033



Pictures below. More chaos as police board Cape Verde bound plane to quell passenger unruliness. Pilot waits impatiently for news.

Some pics at last. Organised chaos I think the word should be for that country...chaos is reserved for us.

Are these aerial pictures not from the drones too or the watchtower?

stalwart123:
Are these aerial pictures not from the drones too or the watchtower?

Aerial pics are probably taken from a plane a while ago, just give some context of the airport.

Why is everything oyinbo neater than blacks.?

Update:

Gatwick has finally reopened but drone operator is still at large. There are rumours that the chaos was caused by an environmental activist.

Army deploys anti-drone technology and thwarts another attack today. See pics to see how they did it.

First .. clear road.. If you wan buy land for here.. message me

A detailed description of the drone, provided by witnesses, meant experts were able to determine the make and model of the machine, which is only available from a handful of locations in the UK.
It is thought the attacker could be a lone-wolf eco-warrior, but Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, and senior detectives also said they had not ruled out that a foreign state could be behind the attack.
The airport authorities quickly launched one of their own drones to track and divert any hostile device and the airport was able to reopen around 40 minutes later.

Chris Woodroofe, Gatwick chief operating officer, warned that further disruption could not be ruled out in the crucial days before Christmas.





LATEST UPDATE: Gatwick is now opened!
This is a society that works.
We will get there someday soon.

Who is watching Iya Charly's country?
Anybody plotting any kinda evil will not wake up in the morning o!

Now this is how an international airport is suppose to look like

even the Almighty UK couldn't find a drone operator..lolz..so much for super power

Gsongz:
First .. clear road.. If you wan buy land for here.. message me

Comment with something sensible now!

Drone for UK.... Buhari cow for Nigeria

They will castrate the perpetrator if they eventually catch him.

Sane and organized chaos

A

See technology.

See security alertness....
Anybody wey follow collect money or support make buhari continue to dey rule us,
No go die better.

I condemn this act

Walahi oyinbos dey very nice. If them catch the idiot wet dey behind this drone, they'll just arrest him and send him to jail. Them nor give an correct beating like our naija police. Try this kind thing with naija police or ARMY and make God punish you make them catch you.

Wetin this Oyibo Pple to Fear Sef.Common Kit

AbujaBlue:
Army deploys anti-drone technology and thwarts another attack today. See pics to see how they did it.

Israeli Made

Okay

so this is how people will be till everything is over....

Isn't Gatwick owned by a Nigerian?

Hmm..

Look at the stoopid drone operator here