GATWICK AIRPORT:
Two people have been arrested in connection with the "criminal use of
drones" at London's Gatwick Airport, police said yesterday, after three
days of disruption affected tens of thousands of passengers during the
pre-Christmas getaway. Drones were first sighted buzzing around Britain's
second-busiest air hub on Wednesday, forcing the runway to close and causing
chaos for more than 140,000 people.

"As part of
our ongoing investigations into the criminal use of drones which has severely
disrupted flights in and out of Gatwick Airport, Sussex Police made two arrests
just after 10:00pm on December 21," the force's Superintendent James
Collis said. "Every line of enquiry will remain open to us until we are
confident that we have mitigated further threats to the safety of
passengers." A Gatwick spokesman said the airport planned to run a full
schedule of 757 flights carrying 124,484 passengers yesterday. But he warned
that passengers should expect some delays and cancellations "as we
continue to recover our operations following three days of disruption".

Police urged
passengers and the public to remain vigilant around the airport, south of
London, and report any further drone sightings. 
Flights resumed on Friday but were briefly halted after a new drone
sighting forced planes to be grounded as a precautionary measure. Sussex Police
said officers had been using "a range of tactics" to hunt for the
mystery drone operators and "build resilience to detect and mitigate
further incursions". The dangers posed by drones include the possibility
of a device smashing into a passenger plane or being sucked up into an engine
where its highly flammable lithium battery could cause a catastrophe.

Widespread
disruption

The army was
called in on Thursday to offer support, with the defense ministry deploying
what was described only as specialist equipment. "There are a range of
measures which are there today which should give passengers confidence that they
are safe to fly," Transport Secretary Chris Grayling told the BBC on
Friday. Government officials held an emergency meeting to discuss the
situation. The Times newspaper yesterday reported Grayling had shelved plans
earlier this year to introduce laws regulating drone use despite being warned
about the risk they posed to airports.

"We were
promised a new legislation back in 2017," Andy McDonald, the main Labor
Party's transport spokesman, told BBC radio. "There's been a lack of
attention to this." Aviation minister Elizabeth Sugg said the government
planned to "introduce new laws to ensure that drones are used safely and
responsibly", according to The Daily Telegraph newspaper. Under a new
British law, drones cannot be flown near aircraft or within a kilometer (about
half a mile) of an airport, or at an altitude of over 400 feet (122 meters).
Violators face up to five years in prison for endangering an aircraft.

Cat and mouse
chase

There had been
more than 50 sightings of the device or devices since the first reports at 9:00
pm (2100 GMT) on Wednesday and shooting down the drone had been considered as
an option. Justin Burtenshaw, head of armed policing for Sussex and Surrey said
on Thursday: "Each time we believe we get close to the operator, the drone
disappears. When we look to reopen the airfield the drone reappears."
Before Friday's sighting at 5:10 pm (1710 GMT), a drone had last been spotted
at around 10:00 pm (2200 GMT) on Thursday. Mike, from London, had his flight
cancelled on Friday and will miss his connection to Ghana.

"We're in
limbo. We don't actually know when we'll be flying out at all because we
haven't been promised a rescheduled flight, we haven't been promised any
further information, any compensation. Nothing at all." Darcis, 32, who
was supposed to arrive from Milan on Thursday and had to sleep at the airport,
said: "I cannot understand why such a small thing can cause an
international airport like Gatwick (to close). They should be ready for these
things. I really don't understand what we can do." Gatwick, around 30
miles south of the British capital, is the eighth-busiest airport in Europe and
sits behind Mumbai as the world's busiest single-runway air hub. - AFP