The armed forces have been called in
Gatwick Airport remains closed following the ongoing drone chaos.
The airport’s runways have been closed since Wednesday night, as drone devices have been repeatedly flown over the area.
Around 10,000 passengers have been affected by the delays, leaving them stranded as they try to visit loved ones for Christmas.
Now a statement from Gatwick has urged passengers to stay away from the airport “for the foreseeable future including tomorrow”.
A Gatwick Airport spokesperson says passengers should not come to the airport "for the foreseeable future including tomorrow"
— Sky News Breaking (@SkyNewsBreak) December 20, 2018
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has confirmed that the Ministry of Defence has deployed “specialist equipment” to assist Sussex Police.
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has confirmed that specialist equipment has been deployed by the MOD to Gatwick airport to assist Sussex Police. @GavinWilliamson: "Our Armed Forces are always ready to support the civilian authorities."
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) December 20, 2018
“The armed forces have a range of unique capabilities and this isn’t something we would usually deploy,” said Williamson, “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.”
“This is a serious incident, it’s causing widespread disruption for passengers,” said a spokesman for prime minister Theresa May. “The intention, obviously, is that it should be brought to a close as soon as possible.”
The drones were first spotted at around 9pm on Wednesday, and the airport was closed at 9.03pm. It was reopened at 3.01am on Thursday morning but closed again at 3,45am following a further sighting.
— London Gatwick LGW (@Gatwick_Airport) December 20, 2018
According to Sky News reports, a drone was spotted at 4pm on Thursday and has reappeared at each attempt to reopen the airport.
UPDATE: Drone was seen at 16:00 over #Gatwick, continues to re-appear each time airport tries to reopen runway, currently 633 of 760 flights today have been cancelled, 102,000 passengers affected
— Dan Whitehead (@danwnews) December 20, 2018
Ryanair has moved its scheduled Gatwick flights for tomorrow to Stanstead airport.
Travel update: Ryanair flights scheduled to operate to/from London Gatwick tomorrow (21 Dec) will instead operate to/from London Stansted. All affected customers have been notified by our Customer Care team https://t.co/96cDH8V0oJ
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) December 20, 2018
A spokesperson for Easyjet said: “We are making every effort to get people to their destination at this important time of the year, but following reports of drones flying over Gatwick Airport, the runway remains closed and all flights are currently suspended.”
A statement from Gatwick CEO Stewart Wingate said expressed how “sorry we are for the inconvenience this criminal behaviour has caused passengers” and that everyone at the airport “share[d] their real anger and frustration that it has happened”.
“On behalf of everyone at Gatwick I would like to repeat how sorry we are for the inconvenience this criminal behaviour has caused passengers…" Read the full statement from our CEO, Stewart Wingate. https://t.co/M47tA37itJ pic.twitter.com/FB5nHOlHe5
— London Gatwick LGW (@Gatwick_Airport) December 20, 2018
