Technology
Drone sightings cause more chaos at another UK airport, military gets called in
Another day, another drone-related airport shutdown.
It’s only been a few weeks since drone sightings at London’s Gatwick Airport caused around 1,000 flights to be delayed, and prompted a huge police search for the culprits.
And on Tuesday evening, shortly after the government announced new police powers and regulations regarding drones, it’s happened again.
Shortly before 6pm, London’s Heathrow Airport posted the following tweet:
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.
— Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) January 8, 2019
Fortunately for passengers, delays didn’t last anywhere near as long as they did last month at Gatwick. After about an hour of suspensions, the BBC reports, things were back up and running.
The investigation into the cause is ongoing.
We continue to work with the Met Police on reports of drones at Heathrow. We are working with Air Traffic Control and the Met Police, and have resumed departures out of Heathrow after a short suspension. We will continue to monitor this and apologise to anyone that was affected.
— Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) January 8, 2019
The BBC received confirmation from the Metropolitan Police that a criminal investigation is underway, and that the military is assisting.
“We are deploying specialist equipment to Heathrow Airport at the request of the Metropolitan Police,” said a Ministry of Defence spokesman.
Mashable has reached out to Heathrow and the Metropolitan Police for an update.
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