[Cap'n Wannabe]

From the Oz a couple of days ago..

Flights suspended at Heathrow Airport over drone sighting

Heathrow airport, the main transport hub into Britain, shut one of its two runways for more than 90 minutes this morning following the sighting of a drone, causing delays and a huge backlog of flights.

Hundreds of passengers who had planned to fly out of London to Australian cities in the usual evening exodus are experiencing major delays in their travel as the airport strives to get flights away before the evening curfew.

In what appears to be a copycat manoeuvre of the chaos that closed Gatwick airport for three days on the eve of the Christmas period, a drone was reported just after 5pm local time (4am AEDT) on Tuesday evening. By 6.30pm the airport had resumed take offs following an assessment by the Metropolitan Police, which included a low level search of the airfield by a helicopter.

Transport Minister Chris Grayling said he was in contact with the Home Office and Defence and said the military was rapidly deploying anti-drone equipment that was used at Gatwick.

But the incident has raised serious questions about Britain’s defensive capabilities against the drones.

While the police investigated the drone sighting, Heathrow suspended take offs on the northern runway but allowed some departures while also seeking to divert air traffic to try and minimise disruption.

The airport apologised for the inconvenience and said it was working with the Metropolitan Police to ensure safety.

Some flights had been sitting on the tarmac for more than an hour before the airport officially announced it was closing the runway and planes began to bank up at the gates and surrounding tarmac.

A British Airways passenger Lauren Doherty tweeted that a helicopter had come and gone and they had been told they would be updated once a police assessment has been completed.

Katy Hamilton tweeted: ‘’Sat on the tarmac at Heathrow due to another DRONE incident ffs… Who even are these drone losers….’’

The drone scare comes a day after the British government extended the drone exclusion zone around airports from one kilometre to five kilometres following the Gatwick chaos. No one has been arrested for the Gatwick drone incursions and the Sussex police have come under criticism for suggesting there many not have been any drone activity.

This time the specialist resources of the Metropolitan Police were immediately called in to investigate the Heathrow drone.

Heathrow airport tweeted: ‘’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.’’

Flight radar showed that some flights had begun to take off around 6.30pm however airport staff have warned there will be ongoing delays for the rest of the evening.