Drone menace shuts down London's Gatwick Airport

In a bizarre incident where drones created havoc, the Gatwick International Airport was shut down for two nights last week from Wednesday night to Friday morning. Being UK’s second largest airport, flights were immediately suspended after two drones were found flying close by. As soon as the drones were spotted, the authorities were alerted and immediate action was taken.

At first, the airport shut down when one drone was spotted; although operations began again. However, another drone was spotted heightening security concerns and once again shutting down the airport for two full nights. A statement from the airport authority said that limited number of flights was allowed to take off during the shutdown.

Unfortunately, the police weren’t able to catch the people responsible for the havoc the drones caused at the airport. Due to the security concerns, the Army was also called in who later assessed that this wasn’t related to terrorism, but deliberately caused to disrupt flights.

While flights couldn’t take off, in-bound flights couldn’t land either. “It is totally unacceptable to fly drones close to airports and anyone flouting the rules can face severe penalties including imprisonment,” said UK’s Civil Aviation Authority. Once caught, the operator/s could face imprisonment for up to five years.