Departures from London’s Heathrow airport were suspended for an hour on Tuesday after a drone sighting – only weeks after a similar incident at Gatwick sparked days of chaos when operations were stopped.
A police helicopter was sent to give support and departures resumed soon after. Transport secretary Chris Grayling said he had spoken to his colleagues at the Home Office and defence ministry, with the military ready to deploy anti-drone if necessary. Arrivals appeared to have not been affected.
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
One Twitter user, Martin Lawrence, wrote that he was waiting to taxi for his flight to Washington DC when the engines were turned after the drone claims.
Stuck onboard a plane in runway at #Heathrow. Apparently we can’t take off due to #drone sighting!
— Philip Wigg (@philipwigg) January 8, 2019
ITV Granada’s Sarah Rodgers was also grounded with the first officer saying the police were investigating possible drone activity.
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Read more:
[ Heathrow to add 25,000 more flights per year ]
[ Two drones found near Gatwick not involved in disruption ]
[ Gatwick airport: Drone detectors now deployable across Britain, minister says ]
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The northern runway has been closed but the second is still open according to Sky News.
At approx 17:05hrs today we received reports of a sighting of a #drone in the vicinity of Heathrow airport. As a precautionary measure, @HeathrowAirport has stopped departures and officers based at Heathrow are currently investigating the reports with colleagues from airport
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) January 8, 2019