Two arrested after drone chaos forced Gatwick airport shutdown

As two people are arrested, passengers faced further disruption at Gatwick airport on Friday evening after another sighting of a drone led to planes again being grounded for a brief period.

Police did not provide any details about the suspects. Sussex Police Superintendent James Collis said the investigation was not over.

"The arrests we have made this evening are a result of our determination to keep the public safe from harm," he said. "Every line of inquiry will remain open to us until we are confident that we have mitigated further threats to the safety of passengers."

The airport aims to run a full schedule of flights on Saturday but warned travellers to expect some delays and cancellations. Passengers were advised to continue checking the status of their flights with their airline before setting out.

Gatwick had initially reopened on Friday morning following almost 36 hours of closure after multiple drone sightings around the UK’s second biggest airport. Police said they were investigating “persons of interest” in their efforts to identify who had been operating the drone or drones.

About 160 of 837 scheduled flights were cancelled, but the majority of the 126,000 passengers booked to fly from the airport got away as planned, albeit with slight delays, after the runway reopened just before 6 am.

Many more were due over the weekend, with 2.6 million people expected to pass through Gatwick over the Christmas-New Year period.

The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, said on Friday it was uncertain whether more than one drone had been involved. He had previously said “substantial drones” had caused the chaos. In the face of mounting criticism from Labour, he denied he had ignored warnings and said he was planning to hold talks with airports soon to discuss the lessons from Gatwick and try to prevent similar disruption.