Departures have resumed at Heathrow Airport in the UK after an earlier drone sighting grounded some flights. Photo / Getty
Departures have resumed at Heathrow Airport in the UK after an earlier drone sighting grounded some flights. Photo / Getty
Drone sightings brought chaos for thousands of passengers at Heathrow airport with flights grounded for an hour as police investigated.
Travellers were left waiting on the runway unable to take off from the airport, which is the UK's largest, serving more than 200,000 people every day.
Flights have started totake off again just after 6pm, but it is unclear how many flights will be delayed in the coming hours after flights were halted just after 5pm UK time.
We are responding to a drone sighting at Heathrow and are working closely with the Met Police to prevent any threat to operational safety. As a precautionary measure, we have stopped departures while we investigate. We apologise to passengers for any inconvenience this may cause.
The Metropolitan police confirmed that they were investigating reports of a drone sighting over the runway this evening, at the airport's busiest time of day.
It comes just weeks after Gatwick Airport descended into chaos amid several reported drone sightings before Christmas.
The Gatwick closure led to more than 100,000 people being stranded or delayed, the worst ever drone-related disruption at an international airport.
It prompted Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, to seek a change to the law to thwart such attacks, giving police and airports new powers to shoot down, catch and jam drones.
The latest development at Heathrow came shortly after 5.30pm on Tuesday evening. Many passengers took to Twitter to express disbelief that a drone sighting was once again leaving them stranded, many stuck on the runway.
• All flights are suspended from using London #Heathrow’s Northern Runway 09L/27R (due to suspected ‘low flying drone’) which has been the allocated departures runway since earlier this afternoon
A Heathrow spokesman said on Tuesday evening: "We are currently responding to a drone sighting at Heathrow and are working closely with the Met Police to prevent any threat to operational safety.
"As a precautionary measure, we have stopped departures while we investigate. We apologies to passengers for any inconvenience this may cause."
