Birmingham One Of Diverted Airports In Gatwick Drone Chaos

20 December 2018, 12:19

Birmingham Airport say they've seem a number of flights diverted from Gatwick Airport, after the closure of its runway.

The flying of drones at Gatwick, which has caused the runway to be closed, is "a deliberate act to disrupt the airport", police said.

Tens of thousands of passengers are suffering travel chaos after all flights at the West Sussex airport were suspended.

Thousands of passengers, including Tom Bond, who spoke to Capital Reports, have been diverted.

He took off from Belfast and landed at Birmingham Airport, instead of Gatwick. 

#GatwickAirport has diverted and suspended flights after a drones were spotted last night. @jdotbond had his flight from Glasgow diverted to @bhx_official. He spoke to #CapitalReports pic.twitter.com/A20D7wBnQs

— Capital Brum News (@CapitalBIRNews) December 20, 2018

The runway was closed at 9pm on Wednesday after two of the devices were seen near the airfield.

It was reopened at 3am on Thursday, but was shut again 45 minutes later after a further sighting of drones.

At 9.15am, the airport said there was "ongoing drone activity" and the runway remained closed.

At 11.15am Gatwick said all flights remained suspended following reports of drones flying over the airfield.

"There is significant disruption at Gatwick today as a result of what appears to be a deliberate attempt to disrupt flights," the 

airport said.

"We are extremely disappointed that passengers are being affected by this, especially at such an important time of year. We 

are prioritising the welfare of those at the airport by deploying staff into our terminals to look after people as best we can.

"We are working hard with our airlines to get information to passengers but would advise anyone booked onto flights from 

Gatwick, or meeting arriving passengers, not to travel to the airport without checking the status of  the flight with their airline or on our 

website first."

Passengers faced severe disruption as flights were unable to leave the tarmac while others were diverted to alternative airports.