More Gatwick Airport chaos: New drone sighting halts flights, again

There was more chaos for holiday travelers at London’s Gatwick Airport, where flights were briefly suspended again on Friday because of a "suspected drone sighting."

At 5:47 p.m. local time (12:47 p.m. ET), Gatwick airport said in a tweet that it was “investigating reports of a drone sighting. As a precaution we have suspended airfield operations.”

But less than an hour later, Gatwick sent an updated tweet saying flights had resumed.

"Airfield movements were suspended while we investigated this as safety remains our main priority," Gatwick said in a tweet from 6:31 p.m. local time (1:31 p.m. ET). "The military measures we have in place at the airport have provided us with reassurance necessary to re-open our airfield."

The latest grounding of flights, however brief, came less than a full day after schedules began to resume there Friday morning.

London Gatwick is the United Kingdom’s second-busiest airport, trailing only London Heathrow.

Flight operations had been halted for about 36 hours from Wednesday night until Friday morning following multiple sightings of rogue drones flying near the runway.

A drone could cause severe damage if one collided with a plane in mid-flight, possibly causing an emergency or crash. Flying drones is prohibited within a kilometer (0.6 miles) of commercial airfields, but British authorities say they believe the drone operator has been flying the device with the intent to disrupt flights at Gatwick.

British Police and transport officials told The Associated Press that extra security measures had been instituted to prevent additional incursions, but the measures appear to have been unsuccessful.

Now, the latest disruptions will again throw plans into chaos for tens of thousands of flyers trying to get to their destinations ahead of the Christmas holiday.

Even before the new issue on Friday, Gatwick officials had warned customers that they’d likely experience “knock-on delays and cancellations” because of the previous shutdowns on Wednesday and Thursday.

Around 145 of the 837 flights at Gatwick on Friday had already been canceled before the latest reported drone sighting, the airport said. In the afternoon, it strongly warned passengers to "check the status of your flight with your airline before departing for the airport."

The prospect of a deadly collision between what British police described as industrial-grade drones and a passenger plane led authorities to stop all flights in and out of Gatwick on Wednesday evening.

The British military joined police and aviation authorities in searching for the culprit or culprits behind the drone intrusion, which police said was designed to cause maximum disruption over the holiday period.

"Shooting the drone out of the sky is probably one of the least effective options" available, said Assistant Chief Constable Steve Barry of Sussex Police.

He said police believe there was more than one drone operating around Gatwick in the last two days and that it was possible the drones were being operated from fairly far away.

Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: More Gatwick Airport chaos: New drone sighting halts flights, again