There was chaos at London Gatwick Airport when a ‘drone’ caused hundreds of flights to be diverted, delayed and even cancelled just days before Christmas.
Surrey Police posted on the Reigate and Banstead Beat Facebook page saying they were sent to check out a possible drone sighting.
They posted: “Just been tasked to attend #Redhill town to a reported ‘drone sighting’. Described as a red light hovering over the bus station, not moving and not making any noise. Due to recent events at #Gatwick we popped down to investigate further… It was a crane, a crane with an ‘aviation warning light’ on top.”
They topped off the post with the hashtag ‘MysterySolved’ and a picture of three cranes with beaming lights.
However, a Sussex Police spokeswoman told LADbible that ‘any non drone sightings would have been ruled out in the investigation’.
There were more than 2000 drone sightings and police had taken 67 statements about this – Surrey Police have called this possible ‘drone’ sighting a where it turned out to be a crane ‘call with good intention’.
Last week, over 100,000 people ended up stranded in various airports – many travelling home for Christmas.
On Saturday Sussex Police confirmed two people had been arrested in connection with the incident, however the man and woman were released from police custody without being charged.
Prior to this a YouTuber fooled his followers into thinking he was responsible, but his claims were soon cleared up and he confirmed he had nothing to do with it.
Even with all the possibilities around who may be the real culprit of the incident Sussex Police released a statement today saying their investigations continue after reports of illegal drone sightings from eye-witnesses.
In the statement Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Tingley said: “We are actively investigating sightings of drone activity at Gatwick Airport following 67 reports from the evening of the 19 December to 21 December from the public, passengers, police officers and staff at the airport.
“We are interviewing those who have reported these sightings, are carrying out extensive house to house enquiries and carrying out a forensic examination of a damaged drone found near the perimeter of the airport near Horley, which is close to the last reported sighting.”
Now the police force is appealing to anyone who may know anything about the incident to contact them.
