Two held on Friday night, police say, as airport bosses expect to run full schedule on Saturday

This article is more than 8 months old

This article is more than 8 months old

A man and a woman have been arrested in connection with the “criminal use of drones” which has caused widespread disruption to flights at Gatwick airport, police have said.

In a statement released in the early hours of Saturday, Sussex police said the arrests were made in the Gatwick area just after 10pm on Friday night.

Gatwick airport said on Saturday morning that it was open for flights but urged passengers to check with their airline before travelling.

“Our runway is open and we aim to run a full schedule – 757 flights scheduled today, carrying 124,484 passengers,” a spokesman said.

“Safety is Gatwick’s top priority and we are grateful for passengers’ continued patience as we work to get them to their final destination in time for Christmas.”

The airport was plunged into chaos on Wednesday night when drones spotted hovering near the runway forced hundreds of flights to be cancelled, delaying and stranding thousands of passengers.

Police and military experts were deployed to search for the operators of the drones, which reappeared near the airport every time the authorities tried to reopen the runways.

Airlines scrambled to board passengers while the airport was reopened on Friday. But it was closed again on Friday afternoon when the drones reappeared. Military measures reassured operators that it was safe to reopen the runway shortly afterwards.

Superintendent James Collis said: “Our investigations are still ongoing, and our activities at the airport continue to build resilience to detect and mitigate further incursions from drones by deploying a range of tactics.

“We continue to urge the public, passengers and the wider community around Gatwick to be vigilant and support us by contacting us immediately if they believe they have any information that can help us in bringing those responsible to justice.

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

Anyone with information was asked to call police on 101.

A range of tactics have been used to combat the drones but few details have been released. One piece of equipment believed to have been deployed at the airport is the Israeli-developed Drone Dome system, which can detect drones using radar. It can also jam communications between the drone and its operator, enabling authorities to take control of and land the drone.

Speaking on Friday, Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate said the drone flights were “highly targeted” and have “been designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run up to Christmas”.

He added: “These events obviously highlight a wider strategic challenge for aviation in this country which we need to address together with speed - the aviation industry, government and all the other relevant authorities.

“It cannot be right that drones can close a vital part of our national infrastructure in this way. This is obviously a relatively new technology and we need to think through together the right solutions to make sure it cannot happen again.”

A Gatwick spokesman said around 1,000 aircraft had been cancelled or diverted, affecting approximately 140,000 passengers, since Wednesday night.

A handful of flights due to arrive into Gatwick on Saturday have been cancelled, according to the airport’s website, including an easyJet service from Milan-Linate and a TUI flight from Bridgetown, Barbados.

The arrests could bring relief for passengers angry at the ongoing disruption on Friday.

One woman due to fly to Sicily on Thursday said she was considering renting a car and driving there after her second flight in two days was cancelled following the fresh sighting.

Laura Cammarata, 27, who lives in London, was due to travel to the island with her partner for Christmas. She said she was frustrated after their flight rescheduled from Thursday to Friday was cancelled.

Cammarata said: “We did the whole process again, we got the train, we started queuing up and at some point they said it’s cancelled again.

“We’re trying to re-book and they’re saying they can’t book us on.”

Her partner Giuseppe Alia, 28, also from London, said: “They should have some contingency to get people to other airports, I understand it’s not their fault but they should force airlines to collaborate in this situation.”

Mike, from London, had his flight cancelled on Friday and will miss his connection to Ghana. “We’re in limbo. We don’t actually know when we’ll be flying out at all because we haven’t been promised a rescheduled flight, we haven’t been promised any further information, any compensation. Nothing at all.”

The government on Friday denied accusations that it had been slow to combat the threat from drones, and had delayed plans to introduce laws to regulate their use.

Shadow transport spokesman Andy McDonald said the government had been too slow to act, despite growing concern over increasing numbers of near misses between drones and manned airports.

The Times reported that transport secretary Chris Grayling had shelved plans to introduce legislation amid pressure on his department, with civil servants being diverted to prepare for Brexit.

But a department for transport spokesman said the claims were “totally inaccurate”.</s>LONDON — UK police say 2 people arrested for suspected ‘criminal use of drones’ in Gatwick Airport case.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>Shooting down the drones causing chaos at Gatwick Airport is a "tactical option" being considered by police as bosses weigh up halting all flights on Friday.

Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Tingley, of Sussex Police, said there had been more than 50 sightings of the devices in the 24 hours since 9pm on Wednesday, when the airport first closed.

He said that shooting the drone or drones down was now an option after other strategies failed.

Speaking to reporters outside the airport's South Terminal, he said: "We will do what we can to take that drone out of the sky and remove that disruption so we can get Gatwickback to normal.

"One of the options is to use firearms officers if that [opportunity] presents itself - they have been out on the ground today and that's a consideration and a tactical option that's open to us.

"There are a number of factors in terms of range, the height of the drone and the likely impact on us firing at the drone but that is a tactical option open to the gold commander who will make a decision based on the information available to them at the time."

Det Chief Supt Tingley added police were working on the assumption the drone had been modified, with the "intent of causing disruption", and were looking through CCTV to identify the make and model.

He said they were following up a "number of persons of interest" in their investigations, with the military drafted in to offer additional support to officers.

Chris Woodroofe, Gatwick's chief operating officer, said 120,000 passengers' flights had been disrupted.

Mr Woodroofe said the airport could remain closed for potentially all of Friday after drone activity was spotted again on Thursday night.

He told reporters: "My apologies to all those passengers who have seen this disruption from the criminal activity from these people who are purposely disrupting our airport and their travel so close to Christmas."

Mr Woodroofe added: "We have had the police, we have had the military seeking to bring this drone down for the last 24 hours and to date that has not been successful so Gatwick Airport is still closed.

"Our intention is to review on an ongoing basis whether we can reopen tomorrow (Friday).

"But we are working up contingency plans all the way through to no flights tomorrow."

Mr Woodroofe refused to comment on the possibility of the airport awarding compensation to passengers who had been affected by the chaos.

He added: "The issue from my perspective is that this has been a criminal act purposefully undertaken in order to cause this disruption and I very much hope we bring the perpetrator to justice."

The incident led to calls for more action to tackle illegal drone use.

The runway has been closed almost constantly since two drones were spotted being flown inside Gatwick's perimeter at 9pm on Wednesday.

It was reopened at 3am on Thursday but was closed 45 minutes later after the drones re-emerged.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said there was no known motive for the pilot of the "commercial" drone.

Night-flight restrictions will be lifted at other airports - probably those which serve London - so that "more planes can get into and out of the country".

Passengers faced severe disruption as flights were unable to leave the tarmac at Gatwick, while many inbound flights were diverted to alternative airports as far away as Amsterdam and Paris.

*For the latest on the chaos at Gatwick follow our live blog by clicking here .</s>Two people have been arrested in connection with criminal drone activity at Gatwick Airport, police announced last night.

The two suspects were held on Friday night after another day of chaos at the airport which saw dozens more flights cancelled and passengers thrown into chaos just days before Christmas.

Planes were grounded again at 5pm when a drone was sighted above the airfield before air traffic resumed with severe delays on Friday night.

One flight from Morocco appeared to be just moments away from landing when it was forced to divert only 1,000 feet above the ground last night while other passengers were sitting ready for take-off when pilots told them of another sighting.

Just over an hour later Gatwick said planes had returned to the air, saying the 'military measures in place at the airport' would ensure the safety of passengers.

At least 25 flights were cancelled with others severely delayed while trackers suggested planes were being diverted to Stansted, Luton and Heathrow.

The Army had earlier used jamming devices in the hope of knocking the drone out of the sky as police scoured the Sussex countryside in a bit to find the culprit.

Police said they were closing in on the pilots who allegedly used 'multiple' drones to shut down Gatwick's runway and are even claimed to have taunted officers by zooming over their heads while flashing lights at them.

Last night Sussex Police said in a statement: 'As part of our ongoing investigations into the criminal use of drones which has severely disrupted flights in and out of Gatwick Airport, Sussex Police made two arrests just after 10pm.

'Our investigations are still on-going, and our activities at the airport continue to build resilience to detect and mitigate further incursions from drones, by deploying a range of tactics.

'We continue to urge the public, passengers and the wider community around Gatwick to be vigilant and support us by contacting us immediately if they believe they have any information that can help us in bringing those responsible to justice.

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

On the third day of the Gatwick crisis:
• None 20 police units from two different forces and three helicopters searched for the drone culprits while the Army brought in specialist equipment including a jammer;
• None Flights resumed yesterday morning with almost 150 flights called off before the drone was sighted again at around 5pm, forcing even more cancellations;
• None Experts said the saboteur and any accomplices would have needed sophisticated modification or hacking to bypass airport security;
• None Police said the drone had been sighted 50 times since the runway at Gatwick was first closed on Wednesday night ;
• None There were calls for tougher legislation against criminal drone pilots, who can only be jailed for up to five years in the UK.

After Friday evening's disruption Gatwick Airport said: 'Flights have now resumed at Gatwick following a reported drone in the area.

'While we investigated, airfield movements were suspended. This was a precautionary measure as safety remains our main priority.

'The military measures we have in place at the airport have provided us with the reassurance necessary that it is safe to reopen our airfield.'

Flights had resumed yesterday morning after all 760 scheduled journeys were cancelled on Thursday, wrecking festive plans for 110,000 people left stranded at the airport.

Amid Friday evening's chaos Southern and Thameslink train services also reported problems because of a points failure between Horsham and Gatwick station.

Passengers were left with Christmas plans ruined, with some forced to abandon holidays abroad while others struggled to return to the UK in time for December 25.

Lena Balbek, 38, a project manager from Kiev who was visiting an agency in London, has been trying to return home since Thursday.

She said her flight with Ukraine International Airlines was re-scheduled for 7pm on Friday but it has now been pushed back until 10pm.

Asked about the closure and subsequent reopening of the airport, she said: 'These things happen. You don't have insurance for such things, it could happen. The well-being of passengers is the most important, I trust the security to do whatever they have to do.'

Ms Balbek said she paid for a hotel on Thursday night and does not expect to recover the costs. 'I'm disappointed it's been pushed back but we're alive and if they tell us it's okay, then I'll feel safe,' she added.

Wayne McAffee and his family were due to travel to Belfast via Gatwick on Thursday after 10 days at Disneyland in Orlando.

The 35-year-old, who lives in South Africa but is originally from Ireland, said they missed their connecting easyJet flight due to delays.

He said they were moved onto a different flight, which was cancelled as they stood in the check-in line, and have now booked a flight to Dublin with Aer Lingus from Heathrow on Saturday morning.

Mr McAfee said: 'I'm sure (the airport and airline) are not enjoying this situation, I don't think it's their fault.

'I'm sure everyone is working their hardest, you can see the ladies at the desk have to deal with disappointment from people. I think everyone is doing their best.

'I'm not saying it's a positive experience but there's no point getting upset. Whoever is doing the drones, I'm angrier at them.'

Another passenger had to fork out thousands of dollars for a one-way ticket from New York to get back to the UK from New York after her flight could not reach Gatwick on Friday morning.

Scarlette Tidy was booked on a Norwegian Air flight to Gatwick but by the time she was told the trip was cancelled, all the airline's flights to London were sold out until after Christmas.

With passengers waiting two hours for a 'live chat' on Norwegian's website she was forced to spend over $3,000 - several times what she had originally paid - to reach her family in time for Christmas.

She said the experience had been a 'total disaster' but that she was now en route back to London.

Another passenger, Emma Jewell, told MailOnline she and her boyfriend were stranded in the Dominican Republic after her flight to Gatwick had been cancelled.

She said the airline had rebooked them on a flight to Heathrow via Philadelphia, but her boyfriend's ESTA for the United States did not come through in time and they could not board the flight.

The couple then boarded a flight to New York only to find there was a problem with the air conditioning, leaving them waiting on the tarmac and certain to miss their connection to the UK.

The cat and mouse game with police started at 9pm on Wednesday with drones deliberately flown over officers and the Gatwick control tower while flashing on-board lights before heading for the runway if officials tried to reopen it.

They appeared to have vanished on Thursday night after the Army used a high-tech 'drone dome' defence system that features a tracking system and a 'kill-jammer' that cuts a drone's communications and seizes its controls.

A similar arsenal of weapons was used by British and US forces to help liberate Mosul in Iraq and neutralise ISIS drones - but passengers trapped at Gatwick are furious the weapons were not brought in earlier.

Security and defence consultant Declan Power told MailOnline: 'The Gatwick situation is a very worrying development as it seems to involve technology which you can buy over the counter and has managed to cause major disruption to one of the UK's busiest airports.

'I am astounded that electronic countermeasures were not in place to prevent drones from approaching the airport.

'The level of disruption caused means that airports across the world have to learn from this. How was someone able to close down a major airport for more than 36 hours.

'Police and security services are going to be highly embarrassed by these incidents. A major weak point in airline security has been identified. The person behind this seems happy to cause major disruption rather than attack aircraft.

'But as the conflict in Syria has shown, it is not difficult to weaponise a drone which could be used in a terrorist attack. Airlines should be concerned.

'The important lesson is the need to deploy effective electronic counter measures and to learn from these incidents.'

Earlier ACC Barry insisted that police snipers dotted along the runway earlier yesterday had 'no opportunity' to open fire at the drones - but would bring them down with shotguns if they returned and Army battlefield technology brought in last night fails.

ACC Barry continued: 'We're working on the assumption that there was more than one drone operating around Gatwick in the last 48 hours.

'In terms of how many perpetrators, there's a number of lines of enquiry, there's an ongoing investigation, we're pursuing that trying to find out who has been responsible for this really malicious criminal behaviour.'

He said there had been no opportunities to shoot down the drones, explaining: 'We have to consider whether it's safe to do so, it has to be dynamically assessed at the time, in terms of the risk, and we have to assess whether it's going to be efficient, effective, how likely it's going to be we're going to be able to take the drone out.

'I have to say on the range of options we've got available, shooting the drone out of the sky is probably one of the least effective options. It doesn't mean to say it's impossible, which is why we've got the option available to us should the option become available.'

Mr Barry said the drones could have been operated from a fair distance away, but police are focusing on 'likely locations in and around the airport'.

Addressing the problems with identifying suspects, he added: 'It's the remoteness between the officer and the drone and over the whole area around Gatwick does make it really difficult to link the drone to the operator.'

The chaos at Britain's second busiest airport has threatened the Christmas holiday plans of up to 350,000 people.

A jet carrying children to Lapland was the first plane to take-off at 6.30am this morning - and 700 more flights carrying more than 120,000 people are scheduled today.

But at least 110,000 passengers have been stranded and forced to sleep on floors for up to two nights with the backlog unlikely to be cleared until Christmas Eve.

Critics have also blasted the police, who chose not to shoot a drone down despite having snipers dotted along the runway all day yesterday.

Gatwick is currently in a row with neighbours and environmental groups after submitting a £500million plan to use its emergency runway for hundreds of extra flights every day from around 2024.

ACC Barry said measures to tackle the drones now include 'technical, sophisticated options to detect and mitigate drone incursions, all the way down to less sophisticated options - even shotguns would be available to officers should the opportunity present itself.'

When asked about a possible motive Mr Barry said today: 'There's a whole spectrum of possibilities, from the really high-end criminal behaviour that we've seen, all the way down to potential individuals trying to be malicious, trying to disrupt the airport.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling is also under pressure to explain why Britain's second busiest airport has no anti-drone systems despite being early warning systems and jammers being common in the United States.

Mr Grayling has insisted Britain is facing a 'new threat' - but today it emerged Gatwick has been troubled by drones near the runway three times in the past 18 months.

Grace Lyons, who was at the airport for 29 hours, said: 'It's an absolute mess. It's very worrying that a few drones can shut down an airport for so long. It's very likely this will happen again.'

Jack Taylor tweeted: 'No flights for 34 hours at Gatwick why the f*** didn't they just shoot it down? I've seen drones come down off someone throwing a toilet roll at it, why did it take so long have I missed something??'

Aimee Trowell tweeted: 'How embarrassing that the police and Gatwick airport have let this go on so long! How can a couple of idiots with drones cause so much chaos #LondonGatwick #dronesgatwick'.

The re-opening of the runway came after the final sighting of the drone at 10pm last night, which had buzzed over the airport more than 50 times since 9pm on Wednesday during the most disruptive airport trespass in UK history.

Detectives are investigating if the pilot is a 'lone wolf eco warrior' bent on grounding jets for environmental reasons and are scouring the area around the airport.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling admitted today it could have been a larger gang of climate change activists flying several drones and refused to rule out the chance a hostile foreign country could be behind the Gatwick drone chaos.

But police have warned the drone pilot could still try again with tens of thousands forced to sleep in the airport for two nights still waiting to hear if they will get away for Christmas.

Yesterday Gatwick confirmed that 'additional mitigating measures' were working and had given them 'reassurance' to re-open the runway at Britain's second busiest airport.

A spokesman said: 'There are knock-on delays and cancellations to flights and we strongly recommend that you check the status of your flight with your airline before setting out for the airport today'.

Gatwick was at a complete standstill on Wednesday as 760 flights were grounded and 110,000 completely stranded with up to 400,000 more people booked in to fly the end of Sunday.

The drone flights are 'highly targeted' and have 'been designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run up to Christmas', the airport said.

Bosses are still warning passengers not to travel to the UK's second busiest - and the world's busiest single runway airport - before checking with their airline first.

But police now have 'a number of options' around its perimeter to help prevent further disruption, Sussex Police assistant chief constable Steve Barry said today.

According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, a plane landed at Gatwick from East Midlands Airport at 5.58am on Friday morning followed by a long-haul jet from China after all 760 flights on Thursday were cancelled.

The first flight to depart left at 6.33am, carrying families to meet Santa at Lapland.

Gatwick chief operating officer Chris Woodroofe said the airport has scheduled almost 700 departures for today.

Mr Woodroofe, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, said: 'Our advice to our passengers is to check with their airline on each of those flights that they're intending to get, to establish whether it's one of the flights that's being operated or one of the flights that's being cancelled, before they come to the airport.

'I'd just like to apologise to all of those affected over the last 36 hours - 120,000 passengers who were due to fly to their destinations or arrive into Gatwick who have not travelled.'

Mr Woodroofe was pressed on why the airport had decided to reschedule flights while the drone had not been found, he said: 'We have been working overnight with the police, with a number Government agencies and with the military to put in place additional mitigating measures which have enabled me to reopen our airport.'

Asked if the 'mitigating measures' meant the drone would be shot down, he said: 'You'll appreciate that there are certain things I can't talk about in detail.'

Mr Woodroofe said he hopes the airport will be back to normal by the end of Saturday.

'We are now operating at almost normal runway conditions and the challenge for the airlines, as the result of this disruption, their planes are not all in the right place,' he said.

'So what we'll be doing today is recovering their operations so by tomorrow we are back to standard operation and continue to recover the situation for our passengers.'

He added: 'Last night working with a number of government agencies and the military we were able to put in place a number of additional mitigating actions which gave me the confidence to re-open Gatwick Airport this morning.

'We now have passengers arriving and departing. We are very much hoping to run a schedule today. It's going to be disruptive. Passengers are going to be delayed. And every passenger should check with their airline before they come to the airport.

'We are very much hoping to get 100,000 passengers on their way to destinations and back into Gatwick Airport so we can begin to recover from this 36 hour incident and get those passengers to their destinations in time for Christmas.'

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has said 'military capability' has been employed to combat a drone at Gatwick Airport.

Pressed on whether that meant 'lasers, drone catching nets or radio wave fences', he said: 'There are new technologies that are now available, some purely in the military arena, some beginning to appear on the commercial market that are able to take action against drones.

'There isn't a single off the shelf commercial solution that does the job and so what's happened is a variety of things have been done to create a sense, create that degree of confidence that Gatwick is now safe to fly in and out of.'

Mr Grayling, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, said this was an 'unprecedented' situation as he rejected the idea that police could simply 'shoot down' the drone.

He said: 'There is a experience recently elsewhere in the world of literally thousands of machine gun bullets being used to try and bring down the drone, failing to do so and of course you can't just fire weapons haphazardly in what is a built up area around the airport'.

Pilots' union Balpa said it understood detection and tracking equipment had been installed around Gatwick's perimeter and that if the drones reappear the airport will close again.

General secretary, Brian Strutton, said: 'It is up to the relevant authorities to decide whether it is safe to re-open Gatwick given that the rogue drone is still around and may be expected to fly again.

'Balpa is not aware that any special advice has been given to pilots operating into or out of Gatwick and so we have this morning ensured that all our UK pilots have Balpa's advice on what to do if they see a drone while flying.

'Balpa remains extremely concerned at the risk of a drone collision. It is possible that the rogue drones may go undetected around the perimeter or could obstruct the flight paths outside the immediate detection zone.

'Given this continuing threat we have this morning issued our advice to pilots about steps to be taken if a drone is sighted.'

Stewart Wingate, Gatwick's CEO, said on Thursday it 'cannot be right' that a major international airport could be targeted in this way.

He said: 'On behalf of everyone at Gatwick I would like to repeat how sorry we are for the inconvenience this criminal behaviour has caused passengers and we share their real anger and frustration that it has happened.

'This is a highly targeted activity which has been designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run-up to Christmas.

'Although not for today, these events obviously highlight a wider strategic challenge for aviation in this country which we need to address together with speed - the aviation industry, government and all the other relevant authorities.

The £2.6m Israeli 'Drone Dome' system that the Army used to defeat the Gatwick UAV after the technology was developed to fight ISIS in Syria

The Army used a cutting-edge Israeli anti-drone system to destroy the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that brought misery to hundreds of thousands of people at Gatwick airport.

The British Army bought six 'Drone Dome' systems for £15.8 million in 2018 and the technology is used in Syria to destroy ISIS UAVs.

Police had been seen on Thursday with an off-the-shelf DJI system that tracks drones made by that manufacturer and shows officers where the operator is (DJI is the most popular commercial drone brand.)

However, the drone used at Gatwick is thought to have been either hacked or an advanced non-DJI drone, which rendered the commercial technology used by the police useless.

At that point, the Army's 'Drone Dome' system made by Rafael was called in. Details of the system are publicly available.

Army officers use a high-tech radar and a laser rangefinder to locate drones within a 2.1 and 6.2 miles radius.

Once the system has a lock on the drone, a radio frequency jammer is then used to overload the drone with signals - knocking out the commands from the unknown owner.

This can be used to make a 'soft-kill' and cease control of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and land it safely.

The system also comes with a high-powered laser which can make a 'hard-kill' on drones by effectively melting them, but the British Army did not buy this version.

George Burne, a UAV strategist at COPTRZ, a commercial drone firm based in Leeds, told MailOnline that the likely way the Gatwick saga concluded was with the criminal's capture.

COPTRZ supply high-end commercial drones as well as anti-drone technology.

The DJI Aerospace AeroScope device, a briefcase-sized machine with two protruding antennae, was spotted being used by police on a rooftop around Gatwick.

It is a complex piece of equipment which is designed to detect drones by manipulating the radio frequency it is operated on.

It allows authorities to piggybacks this signal without the operator knowing with a 'sleeper-bot'.

With sufficient time, specialists can utilise the GPS capacity of the drone to identify the location of the perpetrator, where the drone is, its make and model and also the flight-path the machine has been on.

Once police have this information, they are able to active a feature which is in-built in all drones known as 'return to home'.

This ground-based device is used throughout industry and at many events to ensure protection from drones.

'The detection system is able to pick up frequencies from up to 20 km (12 miles) away and gives a huge radius to spot the machines,' Mr Burne told MailOnline.

'By identifying the signal the drone uses the authorities would be able to know everything about the drone and its operator.'

Hunt to find who is behind the drone chaos: Ministers refuse to rule out foreign power as police probe theories that eco warrior or extremist activists caused Gatwick mayhem and ruined Christmas for thousands

A lone wolf eco-warrior or a group of climate change activists could be behind the most damaging drone assault on a UK airport in history.

Airports are prime targets for environmental demonstrators who have chained hemsleves to aircraft, invaded runways and blocked access roads in recent years.

The sabotage which grounded hundreds of flights and left thousands stranded is believed to have been 'targeted' and the sophistication of the equipment involved suggests it was well-planned and financed.

Gatwick is currently at the centre of a bitter row over plans to use its emergency runway to bring more than 100,000 additional flights a year.

Police investigating the attack do not think it is terror related but Transport Secretary Chris Grayling today refused to rule out it being the actions of a foreign state.

Asked if it was possible the drone was being operated by an agent of a foreign government, Mr Grayling told BBC Breakfast: 'I don't want to speculate on that, we genuinely don't know who it is or what the motivation was.'

'I think it's unlikely to be, but at the moment I'm not ruling out anything', he added.

The Cabinet minister also said that whoever the perpetrator or perpetrators were, they needed to 'go to jail for a long time'.

If no foreign agent was involved, that suggests three possibilities are among potential suspects; an organised campaign group, a lone eco-extremist or an anarchic hobbyist looking to cause carnage.

The most high-profile 'direct action' groups in the UK include Extinction Rebellion, who shut down central London in anti-traffic protests last month, and Plane Stupid, whose members chained themselves to Heathrow's runway in 2015.

Speaking to MailOnline amid a protest outside BBC Broadcasting House today, an Extinction Rebellion spokesman said: 'We want to bring the climate emergency up to the top of the agenda in the media.'

The spokesman added that her group had nothing to do with the drone. She added that the police had not been in contact with them about the incident at Gatwick.

Meanwhile 15 activists are facing jail after storming into Stansted Airport and grounding a Home Office deportation plane heading to Africa in March 2017.

The group caused chaos using bolt cutters on the perimeter fence and chained themselves to a 767 chartered to transport detainees from UK detention centres back to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. They will be sentenced on February 4.

But nobody has yet claimed responsibility, raising suspicions that it a saboteur acting alone.

Sussex Police, whose officers patrol the airport, today revealed that Scotland Yard and officers from neighbouring Surrey Police have joined the manhunt.

Steve Coulson, managing director of drone detection firm Coptrz, said it appeared to be a 'targeted attack' that could have originated abroad.

He told the Times: 'The operator may not even be in the country. You can have a secure internet link from China or Russia and control it remotely, just like we control drones remotely from Arizona and fly them over Afghanistan.

'I'm surprised how brazen this is. I thought we might get some low-level stuff this year but somebody or some group are pushing the envelope.'

Some 350,000 people face having their Christmas plans ruined as disruption continued at Gatwick today.

Drone expert Carys Kaiser told MailOnline: 'It's definitely not a hobbyist who's thinking I'll get some extra footage from a YouTube channel.

'It is definitely something that is more organised in some capacity because obviously the drones that I fly and the drones that most people fly in the UK have this geofencing and we can't get them to take off that close to an airport.

'So this is somebody that has possibly hacked their software or possibly modified their drone in some way.'

Ms Kaiser added: '[The manufacturers] have all developed this software to ensure that people can't just take a drone near an airport and take off.

'You get lock zones, so you'll get a yellow zone that could be a stately home or a football ground - it will say to you do you have permission, and you have to put in details and the manufacturer knows who it is, and if there was an incident they could trace it.

'When you get an airport that's a red zone, and you can't unlock it unless you get written permission from an airport. You have to submit documentation, wait for five days and then you get an unlock code so you can fly.

'As with anything that's malicious, people will hack the software, modify the drones to get around all of that. If you've got malicious intent, you've got a malicious mind, you don't abide by the rules.'

A former Army captain told The Sun that the attacker had showed 'some serious capability' and could be a 'genius' with a PhD.

Richard Gill said: 'Perhaps we are dealing with a person who just wants to do it to show how clever they are.

'He or she is just causing hell because they can and they want to test their limits. It's the thrill of getting away with it.'

No person or group has yet claimed responsibility for the sabotage, but officials are said to be working on the theory the saboteur could be an 'eco-warrior'.

A Whitehall source told the Daily Telegraph that an eco-protest was a 'definite line of inquiry'.

Environmental activist groups have previously targeted airports, in particular to protest the proposed expansion of Heathrow.

When asked why someone would want to disrupt the airport, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: 'There's no sense of motive - there's no suggestion that this is a terrorist act.

'The counter-terrorist police have been very clear that they've seen no evidence that this is intended to be a terrorist act. It's clearly someone who wants to disrupt Gatwick Airport and there's an intense police operation.

'We've got two police forces in Surrey and Sussex working together to try and catch the perpetrator, supported by the Met, supported by the counter-terrorism police and no evidence of a terrorist link at the moment.'

Sussex Police also said that 'our assessment, based upon the information that we have available to us, is that this incident is not terrorism-related'.

Couple who face cancelling their wedding in Morocco are among the thousands of passengers STILL waiting to jet off for Christmas after being caught in the Gatwick drone chaos

A couple due to be married tomorrow and their wedding party face further uncertainty at Gatwick Airport following severe flight disruption caused by drones.

Bride-to-be Tayo Abraham and her partner Ope Odedine were due to fly to Marrakesh in Morocco on Wednesday alongside nine family and friends.

The group boarded the Air Arabia flight, due to depart at 8.40pm, and were kept onboard 'in the dark' until 2am.

Gatwick's runway only reopened at 6am today having been shut since Wednesday night due to devices flying over it, with chief executive officer Stewart Wingate saying they were designed to 'close the airport and bring maximum disruption'.

Thousands of families faced heartache as the chaos at Gatwick left holiday plans in ruins. Children wept as they learned their flights were cancelled, and plans for family reunions were abandoned, just days before Christmas.

Some were left in limbo, waiting for hours at the packed airport to learn if their flights would finally go ahead. Tempers frayed as stranded passengers crammed into every available space, and berated airline staff for the lack of any updates.

Miss Abraham, 31, a contractor from Glasgow, said: 'It's been a year that we've been planning this, we can't start rearranging the wedding.

'It's sad because it's Christmas time and people are trying to get to loved ones. Everything has been disrupted but aside from the cost it's the emotional side, the trauma.'

The group, including a four-year-old and a one-year-old, booked a hotel for the night after passengers were told to return to the airport at 11am yesterday.

Following another day of disruption, Ms Abraham and her fiance then booked an alternative flight from Manchester Airport for this morning at a cost of over £1,000.

She said they may have to 'trim' back on guests as the additional cost of rebooking flights was too high for everyone to pay.

She said: 'Most of the guests are there already. We have to be there. I just want to get there and get this over with, but it will be disappointing for everyone that isn't able to travel.'

The couple are due to fly back on December 26, with other members due to return to the UK on Sunday.

Ms Abraham's uncle Baba Sanwo, from San Diego, flew into Heathrow from the US on Tuesday in anticipation of Wednesday's flight, hoping to travel as a family.

The 63-year-old said he had been sat on the floor of Gatwick for over five hours.

He said: 'I'm uncomfortable, cold and hungry. What if there are people on medication, what if there was a wedding today?'

Stella Phillips, the bride-to-be's aunt, from London, said: 'There's no information. Gatwick have been fine but they don't have any information for you, they say go to your airline.'

The 41-year-old said the group paid £300 for the hotel on Wednesday and they are unsure whether they can recover the costs.

Mrs Phillips said: 'This kind of thing can be avoided. You're saying you're trying to prevent loss of life, but you know it's a drone.

'Couldn't they have brought the military in ages ago? It might take another 24 hours for them to do what they want to do.'

Meanwhile Gisele Fenech, 43, who was travelling to Malta, was among those stranded at the airport yesterday.

'We're meeting family and it's my daughter's birthday today so it's gone all wrong. We've been looking forward to this for so long,' she told AFP. 'Everyone's trying to get home for Christmas.'

Musab Rashid, 22, who was going to Copenhagen, said: 'It's wrong, it's childish of them to do this, because it's affected more than 100,000 people.'

Meanwhile Andrew and Siv Ravenscroft were on their way to a Christmas family reunion in Norway with children Anders, 12, and nine-year-old Erica.

The family had flown from their home in Jersey to Gatwick on Wednesday night to catch a flight to Oslo, but their first flight was diverted to Stansted, where their plane was kept on the tarmac for three hours.

They paid £180 for a taxi from Stansted to Gatwick, only to find that their next flight from Gatwick to Oslo had been cancelled.

In desperation, the family spent another £1,000 for four tickets from Heathrow on a flight today. Mr Ravenscroft, 50, said: 'When we landed at Stansted we were stuck on the tarmac for three hours.

'People were shouting, saying they just wanted to get off.

'We were told there would be three coaches to get us to Gatwick, but there was nothing. We had to pay £180 for a taxi.

'We finally arrived at 3.30am for a 9am flight. They let us check our bags in so we thought we were travelling, then they called us to the gate and gave them back.

'We've now paid £1,000 for four one-way tickets to Norway for Friday morning from Heathrow. We're worried there will be a knock-on effect at other airports and we might not even make it.'

He added: 'The drone is really worrying. Anything could have been dropped on the runway. It's no wonder they take it so seriously.'

Pensioners Robert and Susan Pocknell were due to fly to Spain for Christmas.

They arrived at Gatwick shortly before 4am but were greeted by scenes of chaos, and had to join a massive queue to try to change flights.

After queuing for almost four hours, the couple from Hillingdon, West London, had moved barely 20ft in the queue, which stretched around the south terminal.

Mr Pocknell, 78, said: 'Everybody was arguing. There was no organisation whatsoever. No one even showed us where this queue was, we had to find it ourselves.

'We're going on a package holiday so I'm worried if we don't get to Malaga before Sunday we'll lose our room and won't have a hotel to stay in. I just want a refund and a new flight.

'We haven't even been offered any vouchers to get a bottle of water. It's a shambles.'

His 70-year-old wife added: 'We're British, so we just have to smile and get on with it. I'm more peeved that I might have to go home and cook.'

The scramble to get home for Christmas: Thousands of passengers stranded across the world by Gatwick drone chaos fear they may be stuck as far as 4,100 miles away for festive season

British air passengers stranded around the world are facing a scramble to get home for Christmas as the shockwaves from Gatwick's drone chaos spread around the globe.

The closure of Britain's second busiest airport for more than 30 hours yesterday due to a rogue drone pilot saw scores of flights cancelled and many passengers left in limbo after being diverted to other terminals in Europe.

Those trapped in foreign airports spoke of being forced to sleep on floors and visa complications as the knock-on effects hit other terminals.

Worse still, the huge backlog of flights now waiting to fly into Gatwick means many people stuck abroad face a nervous wait to see if they'll get home for the holidays.

Many are having to fork out for alternative flights, often hopping around the globe in a bid to eventually return to Britain.

Among those stranded abroad are 27 schoolgirls from the Bruton School in Somerset. They were due to be back with their families last night, but had to stay on in Innsbruck, Austria following a ski trip.

Teachers are hoping they can get on a flight today to return to their anxious parents.

More than 120,000 passengers were unable to either take off or land at the airport from 9pm on Wednesday and throughout Thursday.

A further 126,000 passengers were due to travel today, but 145 out of the scheduled 837 flights have already been cancelled as aircraft are out of position and the airport's operations are restricted to just a few departures and arrivals per hour.

Holidaymakers who went on pre-Christmas breaks to the Caribbean face long delays in getting back.

Some are now flying to New York, before transferring on flights to Europe and then getting Eurostar trains to London, with some journeys planned over three days.

Londoner Jennifer, who is stuck in Jamaica, tweeted Gatwick bosses saying: 'I would like to get home for Christmas, but I'm stranded abroad at the moment. Is there any chance you could shoot the drones down?'

Dan Walters, from Wales, posted online: 'Flight from Antigua to Gatwick cancelled this evening. Now having to fly to New York tomorrow and then on to Heathrow.'

However, he saw the funny side, joking: 'There are worse places to be stranded though..'

Jon Carles and his partner are stuck in Lanzarote. Speaking yesterday, he told MailOnline: 'We were supposed to be to flying back to Gatwick today with EasyJet, but no one knows what's going on here and what's going to happen.

'Managed to get through to easyJet after 45 minutes on hold and they told us to wait until 6pm and see what happens. And if gets cancelled we can't get a flight back with them for 48hours.'

One flyer hoping to reach London had to land in Paris - where he was told that he'd be diverted back to the UK on a bus. Others paid for hotels in the French capital out of their own pockets after failing to get information from their airlines.

Corinne Roberts said that her parents-in-law were stuck in a departure lounge in Brussels as their visa don't allow them to enter the country beyond that point.

Joseph Ouechen, a photographer from Morocco, was due to fly into Gatwick on Wednesday night but had his flight diverted to Paris.

After arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport at midnight, passengers with visas for the Schengen area were taken to a hotel but those without - 'about 20 per cent' - were left in the airport to fend for themselves, he said.

'There were families with babies who couldn't get to their suitcases for their milk and stuff,' he said. 'We were asking just for a favour if (airport staff) could help but they said they couldn't do anything.'

Firefighters eventually crossed the border through passport control with blankets and water at 3.30am, he said.

'To be honest, I'm so tired and when the guys from the fire (service) came with the bottles and blankets I was feeling like a war, like (I was) a refugee, but I'm just flying to the UK.

'It's surreal. I was flying to the UK and now there are firemen bringing me water and blankets.'

Those who didn't find themselves stuck abroad had to land more than 100 miles from their destination once they made their way back to the UK.

Chris Lister, from Somerset, who owns an online business, was travelling back from Kiev with his wife Freya.

He was due to land at Gatwick at 9.45pm yesterday but ended up trapped on the plane on the tarmac at Birmingham Airport until 6am.

'There were quite a few babies and kids on board, I think they were struggling more than we were and one woman had run out milk,' he said.

After starting his journey in Bangkok on Tuesday he was finally let off the plane at 6am, he said.

Gareth Jones praised easyJet's response to the chaos, telling MailOnline: 'My son was due to fly home from Salzburg this morning on an Easyjet flight that was obviously cancelled.

'They have transferred him to the same flight tomorrow and put him up in a four-star hotel, with meals, overnight.

'Fortunately, he has no work commitments or time issues so it's not a bad deal at the end of the day. easyJet get some bad press but this is good service on their part.'

Sally Gardiner, who is in Nice, France, said: 'The problems caused by this malicious person extend way beyond Gatwick. My son was to join me in Nice today for a break before Christmas.

'I don't see him very often so my disappointment is immense.

'I have also paid in advance for his accommodation.

'I have French friends who were due to fly from Nice to Gatwick tomorrow for connecting flight to USA to spend Christmas with families there. The knock on effect is massive.'

Killer lasers, high-tech jammers or tracking the signal: How the police could destroy the Gatwick drone of misery... so why haven't they already?

The criminal who is illegally flying a drone at Gatwick Airport is being hunted by police and military personnel using cutting-edge technology.

Gatwick has been brought to a standstill in the wake of the rogue drone terrorising the airport.

Several methods have been developed including laser-laden drones, high-tech jammers and tracking the signal via triangulation which may be used to end the fiasco.

Human snipers have also been brought in to help with the pursuit of the drone.

The Army has been working on a 'Drone Dome' or 'kill-jammer' - which can 'soft kill' a drone by knocking out its communications or a 'hard kill' by shooting it down with a laser from up to two miles away - and may use this prototypical technology.

It remains unknown when the debacle will end and normal service will be resumed and how the drone fiasco will be drawn to a close.

Frequency jammers and early warning systems are common near US runways but are seldom employed in the UK. Communication between the drone and the operator can also be used to pinpoint its location through triangulation, in a similar way to mobile phone tracking.

Police are having difficulty locating the operator as the drone disappears when they close in with via triangulation.

The process requires constant connection and if it is lost, so is the location of the perpetrator. As the drone disappears the signal vanishes and police are then unable to narrow down the location of the suspect.

Radio transmitters operate with a specific frequency range, one that has been set aside for RC car/aircraft use.

If the drone is recovered, it should be a formality for the authorities to successfully identify the other component.

Physical methods of destroying the troublesome drone focus around two main ideas; a physical destruction of the device and a communications block which will see the drone lose contact with its controller and drop out the sky.

In May, London Southend Airport tested an anti-drone system which uses a combination of radio frequency and optical sensors to detect nearby drones.

The week-long trial using Metis Aerospace's Skyperion product saw test drones flown within a 2.5-mile (4km) radius of the airport in Essex - 40 miles away from London - for the two sensors to pick up, and it was said to have been a success.

In August, it was revealed that the British Army had bought an Israeli anti-drone system, which will be used to protect sensitive facilities in the UK.

The Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radars technology by Rada Electronic Industrials is said to provide 360-degree surveillance and be able to detect drones 3.5km (2.2 miles) away.

The Drone Dome, in which the technology is embedded, can disable an airborne drone in two seconds from its five kilowatt 'hard kill laser effector'.

Meanwhile a system developed by three British companies which is capable of jamming signals on unmanned aerial vehicle was trialled in its first public test by the US Federal Aviation Authority in June 2016.

The Anti-UAV Defense System (Auds) system - built by Enterprise, Chess Systems and Blighter - uses high powered radio waves to disable drones, effectively blocking their communication and switching them off in mid-air.

More recently in November 2017, a 'detective early warning system' and 'drone interference system' against unmanned aerial vehicles was trialled at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport in China, which has also faced issues with drones near airports.

The Cangqin system - which can work in all weather conditions - can monitor a low-altitude airspace five miles (8km) in diameter, and locate a drone three seconds after it becomes operative within the supervised range.

Earlier this year, China demonstrated the capability of its drone-killing lasers have successfully destroyed an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from 1,000 feet (300 metres) away.

Back in Britain, research funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) found that a drone weighing 400g (14oz) could smash a helicopter windscreen, and one weighing 2kg (4lbs) could critically damage an airliner's windscreen.</s>The runway at Gatwick remains closed on Thursday morning following reports of drones flying close to the airport - despite briefly reopening overnight.

Gatwick announced that the runway had reopened at about 3am on Thursday - but just 45 minutes later it was shut again. In a statement, the airport said: ""Unfortunately a further sighting of drones in the vicinity of the airport has forced the runway to be closed again from 03.45 as we investigate the sighting alongside Sussex Police.

"We will update when we have suitable reassurance that it is appropriate to reopen the runway."

Here we look at the law surrounding drones.

What are the restrictions around flying drones near airports?</s>Two people have been arrested in connection with criminal drone activity at Gatwick Airport, police announced last night.

The two suspects were held on Friday night after another day of chaos at the airport which saw dozens more flights cancelled and passengers thrown into chaos just days before Christmas.

Planes were grounded again at 5pm when a drone was sighted above the airfield before air traffic resumed with severe delays on Friday night.

One flight from Morocco appeared to be just moments away from landing when it was forced to divert only 1,000 feet above the ground tonight while other passengers were sitting ready for take-off when pilots told them of another sighting.

Just over an hour later Gatwick said planes had returned to the air, saying the 'military measures in place at the airport' would ensure the safety of passengers.

Flights have resumed at Gatwick after another drone sighting forced the airport to shut its runway yet again tonight.

At least 25 flights were cancelled with others severely delayed while trackers suggested planes were being diverted to Stansted, Luton and Heathrow.

The Army had earlier used jamming devices in the hope of knocking the drone out of the sky as police scoured the Sussex countryside in a bit to find the culprit.

Police said they were closing in on the pilots who allegedly used 'multiple' drones to shut down Gatwick's runway and are even claimed to have taunted officers by zooming over their heads while flashing lights at them.

Last night Sussex Police said in a statement: 'As part of our ongoing investigations into the criminal use of drones which has severely disrupted flights in and out of Gatwick Airport, Sussex Police made two arrests just after 10pm.

'Our investigations are still on-going, and our activities at the airport continue to build resilience to detect and mitigate further incursions from drones, by deploying a range of tactics.

'We continue to urge the public, passengers and the wider community around Gatwick to be vigilant and support us by contacting us immediately if they believe they have any information that can help us in bringing those responsible to justice.

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

On the third day of the Gatwick crisis:
• None 20 police units from two different forces and three helicopters searched for the drone culprits while the Army brought in specialist equipment including a jammer;
• None Flights resumed yesterday morning with almost 150 flights called off before the latest sighting on Friday evening forced even more cancellations;
• None Experts said the saboteur and any accomplices would have needed sophisticated modification or hacking to bypass airport security;
• None Police said the drone had been sighted 50 times since the runway at Gatwick was first closed on Wednesday night ;
• None There were calls for tougher legislation against criminal drone pilots, who can only be jailed for up to five years in the UK.

After Friday evening's disruption Gatwick Airport said: 'Flights have now resumed at Gatwick following a reported drone in the area.

'While we investigated, airfield movements were suspended. This was a precautionary measure as safety remains our main priority.

'The military measures we have in place at the airport have provided us with the reassurance necessary that it is safe to reopen our airfield.'

Flights had resumed this morning after all 760 scheduled journeys were cancelled on Thursday, wrecking festive plans for 110,000 people left stranded at the airport.

Sussex assistant chief constable Steve Barry said today: 'We do have persons of interest and we are working through those with our best teams, our best investigators and there's a huge amount of intelligence that we're trawling through'.

He added: 'I'm not going to say whether we think it's more than one person. It's a live investigation and a really significant criminal offence that's been committed here, so we're just keeping an open mind.'

Amid Friday evening's chaos Southern and Thameslink train services also reported problems because of a points failure between Horsham and Gatwick station.

The cat and mouse game with police started at 9pm on Wednesday with drones deliberately flown over officers and the Gatwick control tower while flashing on-board lights before heading for the runway if officials tried to reopen it.

They appeared to have vanished last night after the Army used a high-tech 'drone dome' defence system that features a tracking system and a 'kill-jammer' that cuts a drone's communications and seizes its controls.

A similar arsenal of weapons was used by British and US forces to help liberate Mosul in Iraq and neutralise ISIS drones - but passengers trapped at Gatwick are furious the weapons were not brought in earlier.

Security and defence consultant Declan Power told MailOnline: 'The Gatwick situation is a very worrying development as it seems to involve technology which you can buy over the counter and has managed to cause major disruption to one of the UK's busiest airports.

'I am astounded that electronic countermeasures were not in place to prevent drones from approaching the airport.

'I don't think that this is terror related. It seems unlikely that it is an organised group. It is more likely a spotty teenager.

'The level of disruption caused means that airports across the world have to learn from this. How was someone able to close down a major airport for more than 36 hours.

'Police and security services are going to be highly embarrassed by these incidents. A major weak point in airline security has been identified. The person behind this seems happy to cause major disruption rather than attack aircraft.

'But as the conflict in Syria has shown, it is not difficult to weaponise a drone which could be used in a terrorist attack. Airlines should be concerned.

'The important lesson is the need to deploy effective electronic counter measures and to learn from these incidents.'

One local resident, whose Christmas getaway has been wrecked, called the situation 'a national embarrassment causing misery to thousands, including me and my family.

'How can the relevant authorities not be able to deal with this?,' they said.

Lena Balbek, 38, a project manager from Kiev who was visiting an agency in London, has been trying to return home since Thursday.

She said her flight with Ukraine International Airlines was re-scheduled for 7pm on Friday but it has now been pushed back until 10pm.

Asked about the closure and subsequent reopening of the airport, she said: 'These things happen. You don't have insurance for such things, it could happen. The well-being of passengers is the most important, I trust the security to do whatever they have to do.'

Ms Balbek said she paid for a hotel on Thursday night and does not expect to recover the costs. 'I'm disappointed it's been pushed back but we're alive and if they tell us it's okay, then I'll feel safe,' she added.

Wayne McAffee and his family were due to travel to Belfast via Gatwick on Thursday after 10 days at Disneyland in Orlando.

The 35-year-old, who lives in South Africa but is originally from Ireland, said they missed their connecting easyJet flight due to delays.

He said they were moved onto a different flight, which was cancelled as they stood in the check-in line, and have now booked a flight to Dublin with Aer Lingus from Heathrow on Saturday morning.

Mr McAfee said: 'I'm sure (the airport and airline) are not enjoying this situation, I don't think it's their fault.

'I'm sure everyone is working their hardest, you can see the ladies at the desk have to deal with disappointment from people. I think everyone is doing their best.

'I'm not saying it's a positive experience but there's no point getting upset. Whoever is doing the drones, I'm angrier at them.'

Another passenger had to fork out thousands of dollars for a one-way ticket from New York to get back to the UK from New York after her flight could not reach Gatwick on Friday morning.

Scarlette Tidy was booked on a Norwegian Air flight to Gatwick but by the time she was told the trip was cancelled, all the airline's flights to London were sold out until after Christmas.

With passengers waiting two hours for a 'live chat' on Norwegian's website she was forced to spend over $3,000 - several times what she had originally paid - to reach her family in time for Christmas.

She said the experience had been a 'total disaster' but that she was now en route back to London.

Another passenger, Emma Jewell, told MailOnline she and her boyfriend were stranded in the Dominican Republic after her flight to Gatwick had been cancelled.

She said the airline had rebooked them on a flight to Heathrow via Philadelphia, but her boyfriend's ESTA for the United States did not come through in time and they could not board the flight.

The couple then boarded a flight to New York only to find there was a problem with the air conditioning, leaving them waiting on the tarmac and certain to miss their connection to the UK.

Earlier ACC Barry insisted that police snipers dotted along the runway earlier yesterday had 'no opportunity' to open fire at the drones - but would bring them down with shotguns if they returned and Army battlefield technology brought in last night fails.

ACC Barry continued: 'We're working on the assumption that there was more than one drone operating around Gatwick in the last 48 hours.

'In terms of how many perpetrators, there's a number of lines of enquiry, there's an ongoing investigation, we're pursuing that trying to find out who has been responsible for this really malicious criminal behaviour.'

He said there had been no opportunities to shoot down the drones, explaining: 'We have to consider whether it's safe to do so, it has to be dynamically assessed at the time, in terms of the risk, and we have to assess whether it's going to be efficient, effective, how likely it's going to be we're going to be able to take the drone out.

'I have to say on the range of options we've got available, shooting the drone out of the sky is probably one of the least effective options. It doesn't mean to say it's impossible, which is why we've got the option available to us should the option become available.'

Mr Barry said the drones could have been operated from a fair distance away, but police are focusing on 'likely locations in and around the airport'.

Addressing the problems with identifying suspects, he added: 'It's the remoteness between the officer and the drone and over the whole area around Gatwick does make it really difficult to link the drone to the operator.'

The chaos at Britain's second busiest airport has threatened the Christmas holiday plans of up to 350,000 people.

A jet carrying children to Lapland was the first plane to take-off at 6.30am this morning - and 700 more flights carrying more than 120,000 people are scheduled today.

But at least 110,000 passengers have been stranded and forced to sleep on floors for up to two nights with the backlog unlikely to be cleared until Christmas Eve.

Critics have also blasted the police, who chose not to shoot a drone down despite having snipers dotted along the runway all day yesterday.

Gatwick is currently in a row with neighbours and environmental groups after submitting a £500million plan to use its emergency runway for hundreds of extra flights every day from around 2024.

ACC Barry said measures to tackle the drones now include 'technical, sophisticated options to detect and mitigate drone incursions, all the way down to less sophisticated options - even shotguns would be available to officers should the opportunity present itself.'

When asked about a possible motive Mr Barry said today: 'There's a whole spectrum of possibilities, from the really high-end criminal behaviour that we've seen, all the way down to potential individuals trying to be malicious, trying to disrupt the airport.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling is also under pressure to explain why Britain's second busiest airport has no anti-drone systems despite being early warning systems and jammers being common in the United States.

Mr Grayling has insisted Britain is facing a 'new threat' - but today it emerged Gatwick has been troubled by drones near the runway three times in the past 18 months.

Grace Lyons, who was at the airport for 29 hours, said: 'It's an absolute mess. It's very worrying that a few drones can shut down an airport for so long. It's very likely this will happen again.'

Jack Taylor tweeted: 'No flights for 34 hours at Gatwick why the f*** didn't they just shoot it down? I've seen drones come down off someone throwing a toilet roll at it, why did it take so long have I missed something??'

Aimee Trowell tweeted: 'How embarrassing that the police and Gatwick airport have let this go on so long! How can a couple of idiots with drones cause so much chaos #LondonGatwick #dronesgatwick'.

The re-opening of the runway came after the final sighting of the drone at 10pm last night, which had buzzed over the airport more than 50 times since 9pm on Wednesday during the most disruptive airport trespass in UK history.

Detectives are investigating if the pilot is a 'lone wolf eco warrior' bent on grounding jets for environmental reasons and are scouring the area around the airport.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling admitted today it could have been a larger gang of climate change activists flying several drones and refused to rule out the chance a hostile foreign country could be behind the Gatwick drone chaos.

But police have warned the drone pilot could still try again with tens of thousands forced to sleep in the airport for two nights still waiting to hear if they will get away for Christmas.

Today Gatwick confirmed that 'additional mitigating measures' were working and had given them 'reassurance' to re-open the runway at Britain's second busiest airport.

A spokesman said: 'There are knock-on delays and cancellations to flights and we strongly recommend that you check the status of your flight with your airline before setting out for the airport today'.

Gatwick was at a complete standstill yesterday as 760 flights were grounded and 110,000 completely stranded with up to 400,000 more people booked in to fly the end of Sunday.

The drone flights are 'highly targeted' and have 'been designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run up to Christmas', the airport said.

Bosses are still warning passengers not to travel to the UK's second busiest - and the world's busiest single runway airport - before checking with their airline first.

But police now have 'a number of options' around its perimeter to help prevent further disruption, Sussex Police assistant chief constable Steve Barry said today.

According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, a plane landed at Gatwick from East Midlands Airport at 5.58am followed by a long-haul jet from China.

The first flight to depart left at 6.33am, carrying families to meet Santa at Lapland.

Gatwick chief operating officer Chris Woodroofe said the airport has scheduled almost 700 departures for today.

Mr Woodroofe, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, said: 'Our advice to our passengers is to check with their airline on each of those flights that they're intending to get, to establish whether it's one of the flights that's being operated or one of the flights that's being cancelled, before they come to the airport.

'I'd just like to apologise to all of those affected over the last 36 hours - 120,000 passengers who were due to fly to their destinations or arrive into Gatwick who have not travelled.'

Mr Woodroofe was pressed on why the airport had decided to reschedule flights while the drone had not been found, he said: 'We have been working overnight with the police, with a number Government agencies and with the military to put in place additional mitigating measures which have enabled me to reopen our airport.'

Asked if the 'mitigating measures' meant the drone would be shot down, he said: 'You'll appreciate that there are certain things I can't talk about in detail.'

Mr Woodroofe said he hopes the airport will be back to normal by the end of Saturday.

'We are now operating at almost normal runway conditions and the challenge for the airlines, as the result of this disruption, their planes are not all in the right place,' he said.

'So what we'll be doing today is recovering their operations so by tomorrow we are back to standard operation and continue to recover the situation for our passengers.'

He added: 'Last night working with a number of government agencies and the military we were able to put in place a number of additional mitigating actions which gave me the confidence to re-open Gatwick Airport this morning.

'We now have passengers arriving and departing. We are very much hoping to run a schedule today. It's going to be disruptive. Passengers are going to be delayed. And every passenger should check with their airline before they come to the airport.

'We are very much hoping to get 100,000 passengers on their way to destinations and back into Gatwick Airport so we can begin to recover from this 36 hour incident and get those passengers to their destinations in time for Christmas.'

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has said 'military capability' has been employed to combat a drone at Gatwick Airport.

Pressed on whether that meant 'lasers, drone catching nets or radio wave fences', he said: 'There are new technologies that are now available, some purely in the military arena, some beginning to appear on the commercial market that are able to take action against drones.

'There isn't a single off the shelf commercial solution that does the job and so what's happened is a variety of things have been done to create a sense, create that degree of confidence that Gatwick is now safe to fly in and out of.'

Mr Grayling, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, said this was an 'unprecedented' situation as he rejected the idea that police could simply 'shoot down' the drone.

He said: 'There is a experience recently elsewhere in the world of literally thousands of machine gun bullets being used to try and bring down the drone, failing to do so and of course you can't just fire weapons haphazardly in what is a built up area around the airport'.

Pilots' union Balpa said it understood detection and tracking equipment had been installed around Gatwick's perimeter and that if the drones reappear the airport will close again.

General secretary, Brian Strutton, said: 'It is up to the relevant authorities to decide whether it is safe to re-open Gatwick given that the rogue drone is still around and may be expected to fly again.

'Balpa is not aware that any special advice has been given to pilots operating into or out of Gatwick and so we have this morning ensured that all our UK pilots have Balpa's advice on what to do if they see a drone while flying.

'Balpa remains extremely concerned at the risk of a drone collision. It is possible that the rogue drones may go undetected around the perimeter or could obstruct the flight paths outside the immediate detection zone.

'Given this continuing threat we have this morning issued our advice to pilots about steps to be taken if a drone is sighted.'

Experts believe the suspect is an organised expert rather than a 'hobbyist' but police have failed to track him down more than 24 hours after the crisis began.

Armed officers carrying Heckler & Koch sniper rifles were dotted along the runway yesterday ready to shoot down the drone, which has been sighted 50 times since the chaos first hit, but were not allowed to take any shots.

In an update on its website, easyJet said: 'Gatwick airport have confirmed that the runway is now open. We do expect that the number of departures and landings will be restricted to begin with, which means that we are likely to experience more disruption to the flying programme.

'We would like to request our passengers to continue to check the status of their flight on the easyJet Flight Tracker.'

In response to a customer on Twitter, British Airways said: 'We've received confirmation approximately 30 minutes ago from London Gatwick, advising the airport is back open and the majority of flights operating as scheduled'.

At 9.30pm the airport's chief operating officer Chris Woodroofe said the drones had been sighted within the last hour.

He said: 'Gatwick Airport is still closed, it's closed for the rest of this evening, and our intention is to review on an ongoing basis whether we can open tomorrow.

'We are working up contingency plans all the way through to no flights tomorrow.

'My apologies to all those passengers who've seen this disruption from the criminal activity of these people who are purposely disrupting our airport and their travel so close to Christmas.'

Mr Woodroofe did not say whether Gatwick, which said it 'shared the frustrations' of passengers, had previously had plans in place for a drone attack.

Earlier footage obtained by MailOnline showed the drone flying past Gatwick's north terminal and over the runway before it dives away and lands to the east of the airport after being chased by a police helicopter.

Yesterday a Gatwick spokesperson said passengers should not come to the airport 'for the foreseeable future including tomorrow' when even more holidaymakers have travel plans.

Detectives are investigating if the drone chaos is a stunt by a lone wolf pilot or part of a wider plot by activists who want to disrupt flights for environmental or political reasons - but police have initially ruled out a terror attack.

As MI5 joined the investigation there were rumours that an 'eco-activist' was behind the sabotage, The Sun reported.

A former Army captain told the newspaper that the attacker had showed 'some serious capability' and could be a 'genius' with a PhD.

Richard Gill said: 'Perhaps we are dealing with a person who just wants to do it to show how clever they are. He or she is just causing hell because they can and they want to test their limits. It's the thrill of getting away with it.'

No person or group has yet claimed responsibility for the sabotage, but officials are said to be working on the theory the saboteur could be an 'eco-warrior'.

A Whitehall source told the Daily Telegraph that police were investigating an eco-protest as a 'definite line of inquiry'. Environmental activist groups have previously targeted airports, in particular to protest the proposed expansion of Heathrow.

Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Tingley said there have been over 50 sightings of the drone near Gatwick Airport.

Speaking outside the South Terminal, he said: 'We don't know what the drone specification is. Our working assumption is it's larger than what someone might buy online, we think it may have been adapted and developed.

'We're working through CCTV footage and trying to identify the make and model.

'We will do what we can to take that drone out of the sky and remove that disruption so we can get Gatwick back to the norm.'

Mr Tingley said that shooting the drone down had become an option after other strategies failed.

'We have to take into consideration other people that may be in range and the impact of firing at a drone,' he said.

Some passengers stranded at Gatwick - the UK's second-busiest airport - are anticipating spending the night in the terminal after hotels in the area become fully booked.

The drone flights are 'highly targeted' and have 'been designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run up to Christmas', the airport has said.

Passengers stranded are struggling to get a new flight before Christmas Eve or have had to cancel their trips completely.

At the airport's two terminals tens of thousands of people have been stranded and forced to sleep on floors as up to 760 flights face cancellation, including several meant to fly children to meet Santa in Lapland.

One couple due to be married on Saturday are facing an anxious wait to discover if they can reach Marrakech in time for the ceremony.

Many more have said their dream trips around the world to see family and friends for Christmas are now in ruins.

Thousands including young children were to sleep on floors or chairs as all flight departures were grounded.

The airport said additional staff will be on the ground during the night to patrol for vulnerable passengers, including those with young children and the elderly.

Water is being handed out throughout the terminals, the airport said, and food and beverage outlets are being stocked up with fresh supplies, with heating remaining turned on throughout the night.

As officers hunted for the drone police described the devices as 'industrial' models and are treating the incident as 'a deliberate act to disrupt the airport'.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed yesterday afternoon that it has deployed 'specialist equipment' to deal with the situation after police requested help.

Officers requested soldiers to test the Army's new weapon - known as a 'Drone Dome' or 'kill-jammer' - which can 'soft kill' a drone by knocking out its communications or a 'hard kill' by shooting it down with a laser from up to two miles away. The MoD has not confirmed what it meant by 'specialist equipment'.

A Number 10 spokesman said there had been a 'cross-Whitehall meeting of officials although not a full COBRA gathering' this afternoon.

The shutdown at Gatwick today has renewed calls for the use of anti-drone technology at British airports including frequency jammers and early warning systems now common near U.S. runways.

Experts said they had been trying to raise concerns about drones with ministers for more than two years and the Government had 'repeatedly dragged its feet'.

According to the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa), there were 117 near misses between manned aircraft and drones up until November this year, compared to 93 for the whole of 2017 - a rise of 58 per cent.

The saboteur could even be bringing chaos with a pre-programmed drone.

Drone expert Carys Kaiser, active online as The Drone Lass, told MailOnline the disruption was unlikely to be the work of a 'hobbyist'.

She said: 'It is definitely something that is more organised in some capacity because the drones that I fly and the drones that most people fly in the UK have geofencing and we can't get them to take off that close to an airport.

'It's definitely not a hobbyist who's thinking I'll get some extra footage for a YouTube channel. So this is somebody that has possibly hacked their software or possibly modified their drone in some way.

'[The manufacturers] have all developed this software to ensure that people can't just take a drone near an airport and take off.

'You get lock zones, so you'll get a yellow zone that could be a stately home or a football ground - it will say to you do you have permission, and you have to put in details and the manufacturer knows who it is, and if there was an incident they could trace it.

'When you get an airport that's a red zone, and you can't unlock it unless you get written permission from an airport. You have to submit documentation, wait for five days and then you get an unlock code so you can fly.

'As with anything that's malicious, people will hack the software, modify the drones to get around all of that. If you've got malicious intent, you've got a malicious mind, you don't abide by the rules.'

A police helicopter and dozens of officers on the ground scanned a five-mile zone around Gatwick in an unsuccessful attempt to find and arrest the suspect, who faces up to five years in jail.

Stewart Wingate, Gatwick's CEO, said it 'cannot be right' that a major international airport could be targeted in this way.

He said: 'On behalf of everyone at Gatwick I would like to repeat how sorry we are for the inconvenience this criminal behaviour has caused passengers and we share their real anger and frustration that it has happened.

'This is a highly targeted activity which has been designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run-up to Christmas.

'Although not for today, these events obviously highlight a wider strategic challenge for aviation in this country which we need to address together with speed - the aviation industry, government and all the other relevant authorities.

The £2.6m Israeli 'Drone Dome' system that the Army used to defeat the Gatwick UAV after the technology was developed to fight ISIS in Syria

The Army used a cutting-edge Israeli anti-drone system to destroy the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that brought misery to hundreds of thousands of people at Gatwick airport.

The British Army bought six 'Drone Dome' systems for £15.8 million in 2018 and the technology is used in Syria to destroy ISIS UAVs.

Police had been seen on Thursday with an off-the-shelf DJI system that tracks drones made by that manufacturer and shows officers where the operator is (DJI is the most popular commercial drone brand.)

However, the drone used at Gatwick is thought to have been either hacked or an advanced non-DJI drone, which rendered the commercial technology used by the police useless.

At that point, the Army's 'Drone Dome' system made by Rafael was called in. Details of the system are publicly available.

Army officers use a high-tech radar and a laser rangefinder to locate drones within a 2.1 and 6.2 miles radius.

Once the system has a lock on the drone, a radio frequency jammer is then used to overload the drone with signals - knocking out the commands from the unknown owner.

This can be used to make a 'soft-kill' and cease control of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and land it safely.

The system also comes with a high-powered laser which can make a 'hard-kill' on drones by effectively melting them, but the British Army did not buy this version.

George Burne, a UAV strategist at COPTRZ, a commercial drone firm based in Leeds, told MailOnline that the likely way the Gatwick saga concluded was with the criminal's capture.

COPTRZ supply high-end commercial drones as well as anti-drone technology.

The DJI Aerospace AeroScope device, a briefcase-sized machine with two protruding antennae, was spotted being used by police on a rooftop around Gatwick.

It is a complex piece of equipment which is designed to detect drones by manipulating the radio frequency it is operated on.

It allows authorities to piggybacks this signal without the operator knowing with a 'sleeper-bot'.

With sufficient time, specialists can utilise the GPS capacity of the drone to identify the location of the perpetrator, where the drone is, its make and model and also the flight-path the machine has been on.

Once police have this information, they are able to active a feature which is in-built in all drones known as 'return to home'.

This ground-based device is used throughout industry and at many events to ensure protection from drones.

'The detection system is able to pick up frequencies from up to 20 km (12 miles) away and gives a huge radius to spot the machines,' Mr Burne told MailOnline.

'By identifying the signal the drone uses the authorities would be able to know everything about the drone and its operator.'

Hunt to find who is behind the drone chaos: Ministers refuse to rule out foreign power as police probe theories that eco warrior or extremist activists caused Gatwick mayhem and ruined Christmas for thousands

A lone wolf eco-warrior or a group of climate change activists could be behind the most damaging drone assault on a UK airport in history.

Airports are prime targets for environmental demonstrators who have chained hemsleves to aircraft, invaded runways and blocked access roads in recent years.

The sabotage which grounded hundreds of flights and left thousands stranded is believed to have been 'targeted' and the sophistication of the equipment involved suggests it was well-planned and financed.

Gatwick is currently at the centre of a bitter row over plans to use its emergency runway to bring more than 100,000 additional flights a year.

Police investigating the attack do not think it is terror related but Transport Secretary Chris Grayling today refused to rule out it being the actions of a foreign state.

Asked if it was possible the drone was being operated by an agent of a foreign government, Mr Grayling told BBC Breakfast: 'I don't want to speculate on that, we genuinely don't know who it is or what the motivation was.'

'I think it's unlikely to be, but at the moment I'm not ruling out anything', he added.

The Cabinet minister also said that whoever the perpetrator or perpetrators were, they needed to 'go to jail for a long time'.

If no foreign agent was involved, that suggests three possibilities are among potential suspects; an organised campaign group, a lone eco-extremist or an anarchic hobbyist looking to cause carnage.

The most high-profile 'direct action' groups in the UK include Extinction Rebellion, who shut down central London in anti-traffic protests last month, and Plane Stupid, whose members chained themselves to Heathrow's runway in 2015.

Speaking to MailOnline amid a protest outside BBC Broadcasting House today, an Extinction Rebellion spokesman said: 'We want to bring the climate emergency up to the top of the agenda in the media.'

The spokesman added that her group had nothing to do with the drone. She added that the police had not been in contact with them about the incident at Gatwick.

Meanwhile 15 activists are facing jail after storming into Stansted Airport and grounding a Home Office deportation plane heading to Africa in March 2017.

The group caused chaos using bolt cutters on the perimeter fence and chained themselves to a 767 chartered to transport detainees from UK detention centres back to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. They will be sentenced on February 4.

But nobody has yet claimed responsibility, raising suspicions that it a saboteur acting alone.

Sussex Police, whose officers patrol the airport, today revealed that Scotland Yard and officers from neighbouring Surrey Police have joined the manhunt.

Steve Coulson, managing director of drone detection firm Coptrz, said it appeared to be a 'targeted attack' that could have originated abroad.

He told the Times: 'The operator may not even be in the country. You can have a secure internet link from China or Russia and control it remotely, just like we control drones remotely from Arizona and fly them over Afghanistan.

'I'm surprised how brazen this is. I thought we might get some low-level stuff this year but somebody or some group are pushing the envelope.'

Some 350,000 people face having their Christmas plans ruined as disruption continued at Gatwick today.

Drone expert Carys Kaiser told MailOnline: 'It's definitely not a hobbyist who's thinking I'll get some extra footage from a YouTube channel.

'It is definitely something that is more organised in some capacity because obviously the drones that I fly and the drones that most people fly in the UK have this geofencing and we can't get them to take off that close to an airport.

'So this is somebody that has possibly hacked their software or possibly modified their drone in some way.'

Ms Kaiser added: '[The manufacturers] have all developed this software to ensure that people can't just take a drone near an airport and take off.

'You get lock zones, so you'll get a yellow zone that could be a stately home or a football ground - it will say to you do you have permission, and you have to put in details and the manufacturer knows who it is, and if there was an incident they could trace it.

'When you get an airport that's a red zone, and you can't unlock it unless you get written permission from an airport. You have to submit documentation, wait for five days and then you get an unlock code so you can fly.

'As with anything that's malicious, people will hack the software, modify the drones to get around all of that. If you've got malicious intent, you've got a malicious mind, you don't abide by the rules.'

A former Army captain told The Sun that the attacker had showed 'some serious capability' and could be a 'genius' with a PhD.

Richard Gill said: 'Perhaps we are dealing with a person who just wants to do it to show how clever they are.

'He or she is just causing hell because they can and they want to test their limits. It's the thrill of getting away with it.'

No person or group has yet claimed responsibility for the sabotage, but officials are said to be working on the theory the saboteur could be an 'eco-warrior'.

A Whitehall source told the Daily Telegraph that an eco-protest was a 'definite line of inquiry'.

Environmental activist groups have previously targeted airports, in particular to protest the proposed expansion of Heathrow.

When asked why someone would want to disrupt the airport, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: 'There's no sense of motive - there's no suggestion that this is a terrorist act.

'The counter-terrorist police have been very clear that they've seen no evidence that this is intended to be a terrorist act. It's clearly someone who wants to disrupt Gatwick Airport and there's an intense police operation.

'We've got two police forces in Surrey and Sussex working together to try and catch the perpetrator, supported by the Met, supported by the counter-terrorism police and no evidence of a terrorist link at the moment.'

Sussex Police also said that 'our assessment, based upon the information that we have available to us, is that this incident is not terrorism-related'.

Couple who face cancelling their wedding in Morocco are among the thousands of passengers STILL waiting to jet off for Christmas after being caught in the Gatwick drone chaos

A couple due to be married tomorrow and their wedding party face further uncertainty at Gatwick Airport following severe flight disruption caused by drones.

Bride-to-be Tayo Abraham and her partner Ope Odedine were due to fly to Marrakesh in Morocco on Wednesday alongside nine family and friends.

The group boarded the Air Arabia flight, due to depart at 8.40pm, and were kept onboard 'in the dark' until 2am.

Gatwick's runway only reopened at 6am today having been shut since Wednesday night due to devices flying over it, with chief executive officer Stewart Wingate saying they were designed to 'close the airport and bring maximum disruption'.

Thousands of families faced heartache as the chaos at Gatwick left holiday plans in ruins. Children wept as they learned their flights were cancelled, and plans for family reunions were abandoned, just days before Christmas.

Some were left in limbo, waiting for hours at the packed airport to learn if their flights would finally go ahead. Tempers frayed as stranded passengers crammed into every available space, and berated airline staff for the lack of any updates.

Miss Abraham, 31, a contractor from Glasgow, said: 'It's been a year that we've been planning this, we can't start rearranging the wedding.

'It's sad because it's Christmas time and people are trying to get to loved ones. Everything has been disrupted but aside from the cost it's the emotional side, the trauma.'

The group, including a four-year-old and a one-year-old, booked a hotel for the night after passengers were told to return to the airport at 11am yesterday.

Following another day of disruption, Ms Abraham and her fiance then booked an alternative flight from Manchester Airport for this morning at a cost of over £1,000.

She said they may have to 'trim' back on guests as the additional cost of rebooking flights was too high for everyone to pay.

She said: 'Most of the guests are there already. We have to be there. I just want to get there and get this over with, but it will be disappointing for everyone that isn't able to travel.'

The couple are due to fly back on December 26, with other members due to return to the UK on Sunday.

Ms Abraham's uncle Baba Sanwo, from San Diego, flew into Heathrow from the US on Tuesday in anticipation of Wednesday's flight, hoping to travel as a family.

The 63-year-old said he had been sat on the floor of Gatwick for over five hours.

He said: 'I'm uncomfortable, cold and hungry. What if there are people on medication, what if there was a wedding today?'

Stella Phillips, the bride-to-be's aunt, from London, said: 'There's no information. Gatwick have been fine but they don't have any information for you, they say go to your airline.'

The 41-year-old said the group paid £300 for the hotel on Wednesday and they are unsure whether they can recover the costs.

Mrs Phillips said: 'This kind of thing can be avoided. You're saying you're trying to prevent loss of life, but you know it's a drone.

'Couldn't they have brought the military in ages ago? It might take another 24 hours for them to do what they want to do.'

Meanwhile Gisele Fenech, 43, who was travelling to Malta, was among those stranded at the airport yesterday.

'We're meeting family and it's my daughter's birthday today so it's gone all wrong. We've been looking forward to this for so long,' she told AFP. 'Everyone's trying to get home for Christmas.'

Musab Rashid, 22, who was going to Copenhagen, said: 'It's wrong, it's childish of them to do this, because it's affected more than 100,000 people.'

Meanwhile Andrew and Siv Ravenscroft were on their way to a Christmas family reunion in Norway with children Anders, 12, and nine-year-old Erica.

The family had flown from their home in Jersey to Gatwick on Wednesday night to catch a flight to Oslo, but their first flight was diverted to Stansted, where their plane was kept on the tarmac for three hours.

They paid £180 for a taxi from Stansted to Gatwick, only to find that their next flight from Gatwick to Oslo had been cancelled.

In desperation, the family spent another £1,000 for four tickets from Heathrow on a flight today. Mr Ravenscroft, 50, said: 'When we landed at Stansted we were stuck on the tarmac for three hours.

'People were shouting, saying they just wanted to get off.

'We were told there would be three coaches to get us to Gatwick, but there was nothing. We had to pay £180 for a taxi.

'We finally arrived at 3.30am for a 9am flight. They let us check our bags in so we thought we were travelling, then they called us to the gate and gave them back.

'We've now paid £1,000 for four one-way tickets to Norway for Friday morning from Heathrow. We're worried there will be a knock-on effect at other airports and we might not even make it.'

He added: 'The drone is really worrying. Anything could have been dropped on the runway. It's no wonder they take it so seriously.'

Pensioners Robert and Susan Pocknell were due to fly to Spain for Christmas.

They arrived at Gatwick shortly before 4am but were greeted by scenes of chaos, and had to join a massive queue to try to change flights.

After queuing for almost four hours, the couple from Hillingdon, West London, had moved barely 20ft in the queue, which stretched around the south terminal.

Mr Pocknell, 78, said: 'Everybody was arguing. There was no organisation whatsoever. No one even showed us where this queue was, we had to find it ourselves.

'We're going on a package holiday so I'm worried if we don't get to Malaga before Sunday we'll lose our room and won't have a hotel to stay in. I just want a refund and a new flight.

'We haven't even been offered any vouchers to get a bottle of water. It's a shambles.'

His 70-year-old wife added: 'We're British, so we just have to smile and get on with it. I'm more peeved that I might have to go home and cook.'

The scramble to get home for Christmas: Thousands of passengers stranded across the world by Gatwick drone chaos fear they may be stuck as far as 4,100 miles away for festive season

British air passengers stranded around the world are facing a scramble to get home for Christmas as the shockwaves from Gatwick's drone chaos spread around the globe.

The closure of Britain's second busiest airport for more than 30 hours yesterday due to a rogue drone pilot saw scores of flights cancelled and many passengers left in limbo after being diverted to other terminals in Europe.

Those trapped in foreign airports spoke of being forced to sleep on floors and visa complications as the knock-on effects hit other terminals.

Worse still, the huge backlog of flights now waiting to fly into Gatwick means many people stuck abroad face a nervous wait to see if they'll get home for the holidays.

Many are having to fork out for alternative flights, often hopping around the globe in a bid to eventually return to Britain.

Among those stranded abroad are 27 schoolgirls from the Bruton School in Somerset. They were due to be back with their families last night, but had to stay on in Innsbruck, Austria following a ski trip.

Teachers are hoping they can get on a flight today to return to their anxious parents.

More than 120,000 passengers were unable to either take off or land at the airport from 9pm on Wednesday and throughout Thursday.

A further 126,000 passengers were due to travel today, but 145 out of the scheduled 837 flights have already been cancelled as aircraft are out of position and the airport's operations are restricted to just a few departures and arrivals per hour.

Holidaymakers who went on pre-Christmas breaks to the Caribbean face long delays in getting back.

Some are now flying to New York, before transferring on flights to Europe and then getting Eurostar trains to London, with some journeys planned over three days.

Londoner Jennifer, who is stuck in Jamaica, tweeted Gatwick bosses saying: 'I would like to get home for Christmas, but I'm stranded abroad at the moment. Is there any chance you could shoot the drones down?'

Dan Walters, from Wales, posted online: 'Flight from Antigua to Gatwick cancelled this evening. Now having to fly to New York tomorrow and then on to Heathrow.'

However, he saw the funny side, joking: 'There are worse places to be stranded though..'

Jon Carles and his partner are stuck in Lanzarote. Speaking yesterday, he told MailOnline: 'We were supposed to be to flying back to Gatwick today with EasyJet, but no one knows what's going on here and what's going to happen.

'Managed to get through to easyJet after 45 minutes on hold and they told us to wait until 6pm and see what happens. And if gets cancelled we can't get a flight back with them for 48hours.'

One flyer hoping to reach London had to land in Paris - where he was told that he'd be diverted back to the UK on a bus. Others paid for hotels in the French capital out of their own pockets after failing to get information from their airlines.

Corinne Roberts said that her parents-in-law were stuck in a departure lounge in Brussels as their visa don't allow them to enter the country beyond that point.

Joseph Ouechen, a photographer from Morocco, was due to fly into Gatwick on Wednesday night but had his flight diverted to Paris.

After arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport at midnight, passengers with visas for the Schengen area were taken to a hotel but those without - 'about 20 per cent' - were left in the airport to fend for themselves, he said.

'There were families with babies who couldn't get to their suitcases for their milk and stuff,' he said. 'We were asking just for a favour if (airport staff) could help but they said they couldn't do anything.'

Firefighters eventually crossed the border through passport control with blankets and water at 3.30am, he said.

'To be honest, I'm so tired and when the guys from the fire (service) came with the bottles and blankets I was feeling like a war, like (I was) a refugee, but I'm just flying to the UK.

'It's surreal. I was flying to the UK and now there are firemen bringing me water and blankets.'

Those who didn't find themselves stuck abroad had to land more than 100 miles from their destination once they made their way back to the UK.

Chris Lister, from Somerset, who owns an online business, was travelling back from Kiev with his wife Freya.

He was due to land at Gatwick at 9.45pm yesterday but ended up trapped on the plane on the tarmac at Birmingham Airport until 6am.

'There were quite a few babies and kids on board, I think they were struggling more than we were and one woman had run out milk,' he said.

After starting his journey in Bangkok on Tuesday he was finally let off the plane at 6am, he said.

Gareth Jones praised easyJet's response to the chaos, telling MailOnline: 'My son was due to fly home from Salzburg this morning on an Easyjet flight that was obviously cancelled.

'They have transferred him to the same flight tomorrow and put him up in a four-star hotel, with meals, overnight.

'Fortunately, he has no work commitments or time issues so it's not a bad deal at the end of the day. easyJet get some bad press but this is good service on their part.'

Sally Gardiner, who is in Nice, France, said: 'The problems caused by this malicious person extend way beyond Gatwick. My son was to join me in Nice today for a break before Christmas.

'I don't see him very often so my disappointment is immense.

'I have also paid in advance for his accommodation.

'I have French friends who were due to fly from Nice to Gatwick tomorrow for connecting flight to USA to spend Christmas with families there. The knock on effect is massive.'

Killer lasers, high-tech jammers or tracking the signal: How the police could destroy the Gatwick drone of misery... so why haven't they already?

The criminal who is illegally flying a drone at Gatwick Airport is being hunted by police and military personnel using cutting-edge technology.

Gatwick has been brought to a standstill in the wake of the rogue drone terrorising the airport.

Several methods have been developed including laser-laden drones, high-tech jammers and tracking the signal via triangulation which may be used to end the fiasco.

Human snipers have also been brought in to help with the pursuit of the drone.

The Army has been working on a 'Drone Dome' or 'kill-jammer' - which can 'soft kill' a drone by knocking out its communications or a 'hard kill' by shooting it down with a laser from up to two miles away - and may use this prototypical technology.

It remains unknown when the debacle will end and normal service will be resumed and how the drone fiasco will be drawn to a close.

Frequency jammers and early warning systems are common near US runways but are seldom employed in the UK. Communication between the drone and the operator can also be used to pinpoint its location through triangulation, in a similar way to mobile phone tracking.

Police are having difficulty locating the operator as the drone disappears when they close in with via triangulation.

The process requires constant connection and if it is lost, so is the location of the perpetrator. As the drone disappears the signal vanishes and police are then unable to narrow down the location of the suspect.

Radio transmitters operate with a specific frequency range, one that has been set aside for RC car/aircraft use.

If the drone is recovered, it should be a formality for the authorities to successfully identify the other component.

Physical methods of destroying the troublesome drone focus around two main ideas; a physical destruction of the device and a communications block which will see the drone lose contact with its controller and drop out the sky.

In May, London Southend Airport tested an anti-drone system which uses a combination of radio frequency and optical sensors to detect nearby drones.

The week-long trial using Metis Aerospace's Skyperion product saw test drones flown within a 2.5-mile (4km) radius of the airport in Essex - 40 miles away from London - for the two sensors to pick up, and it was said to have been a success.

In August, it was revealed that the British Army had bought an Israeli anti-drone system, which will be used to protect sensitive facilities in the UK.

The Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radars technology by Rada Electronic Industrials is said to provide 360-degree surveillance and be able to detect drones 3.5km (2.2 miles) away.

The Drone Dome, in which the technology is embedded, can disable an airborne drone in two seconds from its five kilowatt 'hard kill laser effector'.

Meanwhile a system developed by three British companies which is capable of jamming signals on unmanned aerial vehicle was trialled in its first public test by the US Federal Aviation Authority in June 2016.

The Anti-UAV Defense System (Auds) system - built by Enterprise, Chess Systems and Blighter - uses high powered radio waves to disable drones, effectively blocking their communication and switching them off in mid-air.

More recently in November 2017, a 'detective early warning system' and 'drone interference system' against unmanned aerial vehicles was trialled at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport in China, which has also faced issues with drones near airports.

The Cangqin system - which can work in all weather conditions - can monitor a low-altitude airspace five miles (8km) in diameter, and locate a drone three seconds after it becomes operative within the supervised range.

Earlier this year, China demonstrated the capability of its drone-killing lasers have successfully destroyed an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from 1,000 feet (300 metres) away.

Back in Britain, research funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) found that a drone weighing 400g (14oz) could smash a helicopter windscreen, and one weighing 2kg (4lbs) could critically damage an airliner's windscreen.</s>Two people have been arrested in connection with the "criminal use of drones" which caused major disruption at Gatwick Airport.

More than 100,000 Christmas travellers were affected when hundreds of flights were grounded from Wednesday night to early on Friday.

Flights were temporarily suspended again on Friday evening when another drone was spotted near the airfield.

Sussex Police said two people had been arrested shortly after 10pm on Friday "as part of our ongoing investigations into the criminal use of drones which has severely disrupted flights in and out of Gatwick Airport".

"Our investigations are still on-going, and our activities at the airport continue to build resilience to detect and mitigate further incursions from drones, by deploying a range of tactics," Superintendent James Collis said.

"We continue to urge the public, passengers and the wider community around Gatwick to be vigilant and support us by contacting us immediately if they believe they have any information that can help us in bringing those responsible to justice.

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

A Gatwick Airport spokeswoman confirmed flights had resumed on Friday evening after being suspended for more than an hour.

Military measures were in place which meant it was safe to fly despite the "confirmed sighting", the spokeswoman said,

The airport faced a total shutdown all of Thursday and part of Wednesday night when drones repeatedly violated its perimeter.

Some passengers described freezing conditions as they slept on benches or on the airport floor.

Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft had offered a £10,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and charge of the drone operator.

Gatwick is Britain's second busiest airport and serves more than 43 million passengers a year.</s>Two people have been arrested in connection with criminal drone activity at Gatwick Airport, police announced last night.

The two suspects were held on Friday night after another day of chaos at the airport which saw dozens more flights cancelled and passengers thrown into chaos just days before Christmas.

Planes were grounded again at 5pm when a drone was sighted above the airfield before air traffic resumed with severe delays on Friday night.

One flight from Morocco appeared to be just moments away from landing when it was forced to divert only 1,000 feet above the ground last night while other passengers were sitting ready for take-off when pilots told them of another sighting.

Just over an hour later Gatwick said planes had returned to the air, saying the 'military measures in place at the airport' would ensure the safety of passengers.

At least 25 flights were cancelled with others severely delayed while trackers suggested planes were being diverted to Stansted, Luton and Heathrow.

The Army had earlier used jamming devices in the hope of knocking the drone out of the sky as police scoured the Sussex countryside in a bit to find the culprit.

Police said they were closing in on the pilots who allegedly used 'multiple' drones to shut down Gatwick's runway and are even claimed to have taunted officers by zooming over their heads while flashing lights at them.

Last night Sussex Police said in a statement: 'As part of our ongoing investigations into the criminal use of drones which has severely disrupted flights in and out of Gatwick Airport, Sussex Police made two arrests just after 10pm.

'Our investigations are still on-going, and our activities at the airport continue to build resilience to detect and mitigate further incursions from drones, by deploying a range of tactics.

'We continue to urge the public, passengers and the wider community around Gatwick to be vigilant and support us by contacting us immediately if they believe they have any information that can help us in bringing those responsible to justice.

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

On the third day of the Gatwick crisis:
• None 20 police units from two different forces and three helicopters searched for the drone culprits while the Army brought in specialist equipment including a jammer;
• None Flights resumed yesterday morning with almost 150 flights called off before the drone was sighted again at around 5pm, forcing even more cancellations;
• None Experts said the saboteur and any accomplices would have needed sophisticated modification or hacking to bypass airport security;
• None Police said the drone had been sighted 50 times since the runway at Gatwick was first closed on Wednesday night ;
• None There were calls for tougher legislation against criminal drone pilots, who can only be jailed for up to five years in the UK.

After Friday evening's disruption Gatwick Airport said: 'Flights have now resumed at Gatwick following a reported drone in the area.

'While we investigated, airfield movements were suspended. This was a precautionary measure as safety remains our main priority.

'The military measures we have in place at the airport have provided us with the reassurance necessary that it is safe to reopen our airfield.'

Flights had resumed yesterday morning after all 760 scheduled journeys were cancelled on Thursday, wrecking festive plans for 110,000 people left stranded at the airport.

Amid Friday evening's chaos Southern and Thameslink train services also reported problems because of a points failure between Horsham and Gatwick station.

Passengers were left with Christmas plans ruined, with some forced to abandon holidays abroad while others struggled to return to the UK in time for December 25.

Lena Balbek, 38, a project manager from Kiev who was visiting an agency in London, has been trying to return home since Thursday.

She said her flight with Ukraine International Airlines was re-scheduled for 7pm on Friday but it has now been pushed back until 10pm.

Asked about the closure and subsequent reopening of the airport, she said: 'These things happen. You don't have insurance for such things, it could happen. The well-being of passengers is the most important, I trust the security to do whatever they have to do.'

Ms Balbek said she paid for a hotel on Thursday night and does not expect to recover the costs. 'I'm disappointed it's been pushed back but we're alive and if they tell us it's okay, then I'll feel safe,' she added.

Wayne McAffee and his family were due to travel to Belfast via Gatwick on Thursday after 10 days at Disneyland in Orlando.

The 35-year-old, who lives in South Africa but is originally from Ireland, said they missed their connecting easyJet flight due to delays.

He said they were moved onto a different flight, which was cancelled as they stood in the check-in line, and have now booked a flight to Dublin with Aer Lingus from Heathrow on Saturday morning.

Mr McAfee said: 'I'm sure (the airport and airline) are not enjoying this situation, I don't think it's their fault.

'I'm sure everyone is working their hardest, you can see the ladies at the desk have to deal with disappointment from people. I think everyone is doing their best.

'I'm not saying it's a positive experience but there's no point getting upset. Whoever is doing the drones, I'm angrier at them.'

Another passenger had to fork out thousands of dollars for a one-way ticket from New York to get back to the UK from New York after her flight could not reach Gatwick on Friday morning.

Scarlette Tidy was booked on a Norwegian Air flight to Gatwick but by the time she was told the trip was cancelled, all the airline's flights to London were sold out until after Christmas.

With passengers waiting two hours for a 'live chat' on Norwegian's website she was forced to spend over $3,000 - several times what she had originally paid - to reach her family in time for Christmas.

She said the experience had been a 'total disaster' but that she was now en route back to London.

Another passenger, Emma Jewell, told MailOnline she and her boyfriend were stranded in the Dominican Republic after her flight to Gatwick had been cancelled.

She said the airline had rebooked them on a flight to Heathrow via Philadelphia, but her boyfriend's ESTA for the United States did not come through in time and they could not board the flight.

The couple then boarded a flight to New York only to find there was a problem with the air conditioning, leaving them waiting on the tarmac and certain to miss their connection to the UK.

The cat and mouse game with police started at 9pm on Wednesday with drones deliberately flown over officers and the Gatwick control tower while flashing on-board lights before heading for the runway if officials tried to reopen it.

They appeared to have vanished on Thursday night after the Army used a high-tech 'drone dome' defence system that features a tracking system and a 'kill-jammer' that cuts a drone's communications and seizes its controls.

A similar arsenal of weapons was used by British and US forces to help liberate Mosul in Iraq and neutralise ISIS drones - but passengers trapped at Gatwick are furious the weapons were not brought in earlier.

Security and defence consultant Declan Power told MailOnline: 'The Gatwick situation is a very worrying development as it seems to involve technology which you can buy over the counter and has managed to cause major disruption to one of the UK's busiest airports.

'I am astounded that electronic countermeasures were not in place to prevent drones from approaching the airport.

'The level of disruption caused means that airports across the world have to learn from this. How was someone able to close down a major airport for more than 36 hours.

'Police and security services are going to be highly embarrassed by these incidents. A major weak point in airline security has been identified. The person behind this seems happy to cause major disruption rather than attack aircraft.

'But as the conflict in Syria has shown, it is not difficult to weaponise a drone which could be used in a terrorist attack. Airlines should be concerned.

'The important lesson is the need to deploy effective electronic counter measures and to learn from these incidents.'

Earlier ACC Barry insisted that police snipers dotted along the runway earlier yesterday had 'no opportunity' to open fire at the drones - but would bring them down with shotguns if they returned and Army battlefield technology brought in last night fails.

ACC Barry continued: 'We're working on the assumption that there was more than one drone operating around Gatwick in the last 48 hours.

'In terms of how many perpetrators, there's a number of lines of enquiry, there's an ongoing investigation, we're pursuing that trying to find out who has been responsible for this really malicious criminal behaviour.'

He said there had been no opportunities to shoot down the drones, explaining: 'We have to consider whether it's safe to do so, it has to be dynamically assessed at the time, in terms of the risk, and we have to assess whether it's going to be efficient, effective, how likely it's going to be we're going to be able to take the drone out.

'I have to say on the range of options we've got available, shooting the drone out of the sky is probably one of the least effective options. It doesn't mean to say it's impossible, which is why we've got the option available to us should the option become available.'

Mr Barry said the drones could have been operated from a fair distance away, but police are focusing on 'likely locations in and around the airport'.

Addressing the problems with identifying suspects, he added: 'It's the remoteness between the officer and the drone and over the whole area around Gatwick does make it really difficult to link the drone to the operator.'

The chaos at Britain's second busiest airport has threatened the Christmas holiday plans of up to 350,000 people.

A jet carrying children to Lapland was the first plane to take-off at 6.30am this morning - and 700 more flights carrying more than 120,000 people are scheduled today.

But at least 110,000 passengers have been stranded and forced to sleep on floors for up to two nights with the backlog unlikely to be cleared until Christmas Eve.

Critics have also blasted the police, who chose not to shoot a drone down despite having snipers dotted along the runway all day yesterday.

Gatwick is currently in a row with neighbours and environmental groups after submitting a £500million plan to use its emergency runway for hundreds of extra flights every day from around 2024.

ACC Barry said measures to tackle the drones now include 'technical, sophisticated options to detect and mitigate drone incursions, all the way down to less sophisticated options - even shotguns would be available to officers should the opportunity present itself.'

When asked about a possible motive Mr Barry said today: 'There's a whole spectrum of possibilities, from the really high-end criminal behaviour that we've seen, all the way down to potential individuals trying to be malicious, trying to disrupt the airport.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling is also under pressure to explain why Britain's second busiest airport has no anti-drone systems despite being early warning systems and jammers being common in the United States.

Mr Grayling has insisted Britain is facing a 'new threat' - but today it emerged Gatwick has been troubled by drones near the runway three times in the past 18 months.

Grace Lyons, who was at the airport for 29 hours, said: 'It's an absolute mess. It's very worrying that a few drones can shut down an airport for so long. It's very likely this will happen again.'

Jack Taylor tweeted: 'No flights for 34 hours at Gatwick why the f*** didn't they just shoot it down? I've seen drones come down off someone throwing a toilet roll at it, why did it take so long have I missed something??'

Aimee Trowell tweeted: 'How embarrassing that the police and Gatwick airport have let this go on so long! How can a couple of idiots with drones cause so much chaos #LondonGatwick #dronesgatwick'.

The re-opening of the runway came after the final sighting of the drone at 10pm last night, which had buzzed over the airport more than 50 times since 9pm on Wednesday during the most disruptive airport trespass in UK history.

Detectives are investigating if the pilot is a 'lone wolf eco warrior' bent on grounding jets for environmental reasons and are scouring the area around the airport.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling admitted today it could have been a larger gang of climate change activists flying several drones and refused to rule out the chance a hostile foreign country could be behind the Gatwick drone chaos.

But police have warned the drone pilot could still try again with tens of thousands forced to sleep in the airport for two nights still waiting to hear if they will get away for Christmas.

Yesterday Gatwick confirmed that 'additional mitigating measures' were working and had given them 'reassurance' to re-open the runway at Britain's second busiest airport.

A spokesman said: 'There are knock-on delays and cancellations to flights and we strongly recommend that you check the status of your flight with your airline before setting out for the airport today'.

Gatwick was at a complete standstill on Wednesday as 760 flights were grounded and 110,000 completely stranded with up to 400,000 more people booked in to fly the end of Sunday.

The drone flights are 'highly targeted' and have 'been designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run up to Christmas', the airport said.

Bosses are still warning passengers not to travel to the UK's second busiest - and the world's busiest single runway airport - before checking with their airline first.

But police now have 'a number of options' around its perimeter to help prevent further disruption, Sussex Police assistant chief constable Steve Barry said today.

According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, a plane landed at Gatwick from East Midlands Airport at 5.58am on Friday morning followed by a long-haul jet from China after all 760 flights on Thursday were cancelled.

The first flight to depart left at 6.33am, carrying families to meet Santa at Lapland.

Gatwick chief operating officer Chris Woodroofe said the airport has scheduled almost 700 departures for today.

Mr Woodroofe, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, said: 'Our advice to our passengers is to check with their airline on each of those flights that they're intending to get, to establish whether it's one of the flights that's being operated or one of the flights that's being cancelled, before they come to the airport.

'I'd just like to apologise to all of those affected over the last 36 hours - 120,000 passengers who were due to fly to their destinations or arrive into Gatwick who have not travelled.'

Mr Woodroofe was pressed on why the airport had decided to reschedule flights while the drone had not been found, he said: 'We have been working overnight with the police, with a number Government agencies and with the military to put in place additional mitigating measures which have enabled me to reopen our airport.'

Asked if the 'mitigating measures' meant the drone would be shot down, he said: 'You'll appreciate that there are certain things I can't talk about in detail.'

Mr Woodroofe said he hopes the airport will be back to normal by the end of Saturday.

'We are now operating at almost normal runway conditions and the challenge for the airlines, as the result of this disruption, their planes are not all in the right place,' he said.

'So what we'll be doing today is recovering their operations so by tomorrow we are back to standard operation and continue to recover the situation for our passengers.'

He added: 'Last night working with a number of government agencies and the military we were able to put in place a number of additional mitigating actions which gave me the confidence to re-open Gatwick Airport this morning.

'We now have passengers arriving and departing. We are very much hoping to run a schedule today. It's going to be disruptive. Passengers are going to be delayed. And every passenger should check with their airline before they come to the airport.

'We are very much hoping to get 100,000 passengers on their way to destinations and back into Gatwick Airport so we can begin to recover from this 36 hour incident and get those passengers to their destinations in time for Christmas.'

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has said 'military capability' has been employed to combat a drone at Gatwick Airport.

Pressed on whether that meant 'lasers, drone catching nets or radio wave fences', he said: 'There are new technologies that are now available, some purely in the military arena, some beginning to appear on the commercial market that are able to take action against drones.

'There isn't a single off the shelf commercial solution that does the job and so what's happened is a variety of things have been done to create a sense, create that degree of confidence that Gatwick is now safe to fly in and out of.'

Mr Grayling, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, said this was an 'unprecedented' situation as he rejected the idea that police could simply 'shoot down' the drone.

He said: 'There is a experience recently elsewhere in the world of literally thousands of machine gun bullets being used to try and bring down the drone, failing to do so and of course you can't just fire weapons haphazardly in what is a built up area around the airport'.

Pilots' union Balpa said it understood detection and tracking equipment had been installed around Gatwick's perimeter and that if the drones reappear the airport will close again.

General secretary, Brian Strutton, said: 'It is up to the relevant authorities to decide whether it is safe to re-open Gatwick given that the rogue drone is still around and may be expected to fly again.

'Balpa is not aware that any special advice has been given to pilots operating into or out of Gatwick and so we have this morning ensured that all our UK pilots have Balpa's advice on what to do if they see a drone while flying.

'Balpa remains extremely concerned at the risk of a drone collision. It is possible that the rogue drones may go undetected around the perimeter or could obstruct the flight paths outside the immediate detection zone.

'Given this continuing threat we have this morning issued our advice to pilots about steps to be taken if a drone is sighted.'

Stewart Wingate, Gatwick's CEO, said on Thursday it 'cannot be right' that a major international airport could be targeted in this way.

He said: 'On behalf of everyone at Gatwick I would like to repeat how sorry we are for the inconvenience this criminal behaviour has caused passengers and we share their real anger and frustration that it has happened.

'This is a highly targeted activity which has been designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run-up to Christmas.

'Although not for today, these events obviously highlight a wider strategic challenge for aviation in this country which we need to address together with speed - the aviation industry, government and all the other relevant authorities.

The £2.6m Israeli 'Drone Dome' system that the Army used to defeat the Gatwick UAV after the technology was developed to fight ISIS in Syria

The Army used a cutting-edge Israeli anti-drone system to destroy the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that brought misery to hundreds of thousands of people at Gatwick airport.

The British Army bought six 'Drone Dome' systems for £15.8 million in 2018 and the technology is used in Syria to destroy ISIS UAVs.

Police had been seen on Thursday with an off-the-shelf DJI system that tracks drones made by that manufacturer and shows officers where the operator is (DJI is the most popular commercial drone brand.)

However, the drone used at Gatwick is thought to have been either hacked or an advanced non-DJI drone, which rendered the commercial technology used by the police useless.

At that point, the Army's 'Drone Dome' system made by Rafael was called in. Details of the system are publicly available.

Army officers use a high-tech radar and a laser rangefinder to locate drones within a 2.1 and 6.2 miles radius.

Once the system has a lock on the drone, a radio frequency jammer is then used to overload the drone with signals - knocking out the commands from the unknown owner.

This can be used to make a 'soft-kill' and cease control of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and land it safely.

The system also comes with a high-powered laser which can make a 'hard-kill' on drones by effectively melting them, but the British Army did not buy this version.

George Burne, a UAV strategist at COPTRZ, a commercial drone firm based in Leeds, told MailOnline that the likely way the Gatwick saga concluded was with the criminal's capture.

COPTRZ supply high-end commercial drones as well as anti-drone technology.

The DJI Aerospace AeroScope device, a briefcase-sized machine with two protruding antennae, was spotted being used by police on a rooftop around Gatwick.

It is a complex piece of equipment which is designed to detect drones by manipulating the radio frequency it is operated on.

It allows authorities to piggybacks this signal without the operator knowing with a 'sleeper-bot'.

With sufficient time, specialists can utilise the GPS capacity of the drone to identify the location of the perpetrator, where the drone is, its make and model and also the flight-path the machine has been on.

Once police have this information, they are able to active a feature which is in-built in all drones known as 'return to home'.

This ground-based device is used throughout industry and at many events to ensure protection from drones.

'The detection system is able to pick up frequencies from up to 20 km (12 miles) away and gives a huge radius to spot the machines,' Mr Burne told MailOnline.

'By identifying the signal the drone uses the authorities would be able to know everything about the drone and its operator.'

Hunt to find who is behind the drone chaos: Ministers refuse to rule out foreign power as police probe theories that eco warrior or extremist activists caused Gatwick mayhem and ruined Christmas for thousands

A lone wolf eco-warrior or a group of climate change activists could be behind the most damaging drone assault on a UK airport in history.

Airports are prime targets for environmental demonstrators who have chained hemsleves to aircraft, invaded runways and blocked access roads in recent years.

The sabotage which grounded hundreds of flights and left thousands stranded is believed to have been 'targeted' and the sophistication of the equipment involved suggests it was well-planned and financed.

Gatwick is currently at the centre of a bitter row over plans to use its emergency runway to bring more than 100,000 additional flights a year.

Police investigating the attack do not think it is terror related but Transport Secretary Chris Grayling today refused to rule out it being the actions of a foreign state.

Asked if it was possible the drone was being operated by an agent of a foreign government, Mr Grayling told BBC Breakfast: 'I don't want to speculate on that, we genuinely don't know who it is or what the motivation was.'

'I think it's unlikely to be, but at the moment I'm not ruling out anything', he added.

The Cabinet minister also said that whoever the perpetrator or perpetrators were, they needed to 'go to jail for a long time'.

If no foreign agent was involved, that suggests three possibilities are among potential suspects; an organised campaign group, a lone eco-extremist or an anarchic hobbyist looking to cause carnage.

The most high-profile 'direct action' groups in the UK include Extinction Rebellion, who shut down central London in anti-traffic protests last month, and Plane Stupid, whose members chained themselves to Heathrow's runway in 2015.

Speaking to MailOnline amid a protest outside BBC Broadcasting House today, an Extinction Rebellion spokesman said: 'We want to bring the climate emergency up to the top of the agenda in the media.'

The spokesman added that her group had nothing to do with the drone. She added that the police had not been in contact with them about the incident at Gatwick.

Meanwhile 15 activists are facing jail after storming into Stansted Airport and grounding a Home Office deportation plane heading to Africa in March 2017.

The group caused chaos using bolt cutters on the perimeter fence and chained themselves to a 767 chartered to transport detainees from UK detention centres back to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. They will be sentenced on February 4.

But nobody has yet claimed responsibility, raising suspicions that it a saboteur acting alone.

Sussex Police, whose officers patrol the airport, today revealed that Scotland Yard and officers from neighbouring Surrey Police have joined the manhunt.

Steve Coulson, managing director of drone detection firm Coptrz, said it appeared to be a 'targeted attack' that could have originated abroad.

He told the Times: 'The operator may not even be in the country. You can have a secure internet link from China or Russia and control it remotely, just like we control drones remotely from Arizona and fly them over Afghanistan.

'I'm surprised how brazen this is. I thought we might get some low-level stuff this year but somebody or some group are pushing the envelope.'

Some 350,000 people face having their Christmas plans ruined as disruption continued at Gatwick today.

Drone expert Carys Kaiser told MailOnline: 'It's definitely not a hobbyist who's thinking I'll get some extra footage from a YouTube channel.

'It is definitely something that is more organised in some capacity because obviously the drones that I fly and the drones that most people fly in the UK have this geofencing and we can't get them to take off that close to an airport.

'So this is somebody that has possibly hacked their software or possibly modified their drone in some way.'

Ms Kaiser added: '[The manufacturers] have all developed this software to ensure that people can't just take a drone near an airport and take off.

'You get lock zones, so you'll get a yellow zone that could be a stately home or a football ground - it will say to you do you have permission, and you have to put in details and the manufacturer knows who it is, and if there was an incident they could trace it.

'When you get an airport that's a red zone, and you can't unlock it unless you get written permission from an airport. You have to submit documentation, wait for five days and then you get an unlock code so you can fly.

'As with anything that's malicious, people will hack the software, modify the drones to get around all of that. If you've got malicious intent, you've got a malicious mind, you don't abide by the rules.'

A former Army captain told The Sun that the attacker had showed 'some serious capability' and could be a 'genius' with a PhD.

Richard Gill said: 'Perhaps we are dealing with a person who just wants to do it to show how clever they are.

'He or she is just causing hell because they can and they want to test their limits. It's the thrill of getting away with it.'

No person or group has yet claimed responsibility for the sabotage, but officials are said to be working on the theory the saboteur could be an 'eco-warrior'.

A Whitehall source told the Daily Telegraph that an eco-protest was a 'definite line of inquiry'.

Environmental activist groups have previously targeted airports, in particular to protest the proposed expansion of Heathrow.

When asked why someone would want to disrupt the airport, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: 'There's no sense of motive - there's no suggestion that this is a terrorist act.

'The counter-terrorist police have been very clear that they've seen no evidence that this is intended to be a terrorist act. It's clearly someone who wants to disrupt Gatwick Airport and there's an intense police operation.

'We've got two police forces in Surrey and Sussex working together to try and catch the perpetrator, supported by the Met, supported by the counter-terrorism police and no evidence of a terrorist link at the moment.'

Sussex Police also said that 'our assessment, based upon the information that we have available to us, is that this incident is not terrorism-related'.

Couple who face cancelling their wedding in Morocco are among the thousands of passengers STILL waiting to jet off for Christmas after being caught in the Gatwick drone chaos

A couple due to be married tomorrow and their wedding party face further uncertainty at Gatwick Airport following severe flight disruption caused by drones.

Bride-to-be Tayo Abraham and her partner Ope Odedine were due to fly to Marrakesh in Morocco on Wednesday alongside nine family and friends.

The group boarded the Air Arabia flight, due to depart at 8.40pm, and were kept onboard 'in the dark' until 2am.

Gatwick's runway only reopened at 6am today having been shut since Wednesday night due to devices flying over it, with chief executive officer Stewart Wingate saying they were designed to 'close the airport and bring maximum disruption'.

Thousands of families faced heartache as the chaos at Gatwick left holiday plans in ruins. Children wept as they learned their flights were cancelled, and plans for family reunions were abandoned, just days before Christmas.

Some were left in limbo, waiting for hours at the packed airport to learn if their flights would finally go ahead. Tempers frayed as stranded passengers crammed into every available space, and berated airline staff for the lack of any updates.

Miss Abraham, 31, a contractor from Glasgow, said: 'It's been a year that we've been planning this, we can't start rearranging the wedding.

'It's sad because it's Christmas time and people are trying to get to loved ones. Everything has been disrupted but aside from the cost it's the emotional side, the trauma.'

The group, including a four-year-old and a one-year-old, booked a hotel for the night after passengers were told to return to the airport at 11am yesterday.

Following another day of disruption, Ms Abraham and her fiance then booked an alternative flight from Manchester Airport for this morning at a cost of over £1,000.

She said they may have to 'trim' back on guests as the additional cost of rebooking flights was too high for everyone to pay.

She said: 'Most of the guests are there already. We have to be there. I just want to get there and get this over with, but it will be disappointing for everyone that isn't able to travel.'

The couple are due to fly back on December 26, with other members due to return to the UK on Sunday.

Ms Abraham's uncle Baba Sanwo, from San Diego, flew into Heathrow from the US on Tuesday in anticipation of Wednesday's flight, hoping to travel as a family.

The 63-year-old said he had been sat on the floor of Gatwick for over five hours.

He said: 'I'm uncomfortable, cold and hungry. What if there are people on medication, what if there was a wedding today?'

Stella Phillips, the bride-to-be's aunt, from London, said: 'There's no information. Gatwick have been fine but they don't have any information for you, they say go to your airline.'

The 41-year-old said the group paid £300 for the hotel on Wednesday and they are unsure whether they can recover the costs.

Mrs Phillips said: 'This kind of thing can be avoided. You're saying you're trying to prevent loss of life, but you know it's a drone.

'Couldn't they have brought the military in ages ago? It might take another 24 hours for them to do what they want to do.'

Meanwhile Gisele Fenech, 43, who was travelling to Malta, was among those stranded at the airport yesterday.

'We're meeting family and it's my daughter's birthday today so it's gone all wrong. We've been looking forward to this for so long,' she told AFP. 'Everyone's trying to get home for Christmas.'

Musab Rashid, 22, who was going to Copenhagen, said: 'It's wrong, it's childish of them to do this, because it's affected more than 100,000 people.'

Meanwhile Andrew and Siv Ravenscroft were on their way to a Christmas family reunion in Norway with children Anders, 12, and nine-year-old Erica.

The family had flown from their home in Jersey to Gatwick on Wednesday night to catch a flight to Oslo, but their first flight was diverted to Stansted, where their plane was kept on the tarmac for three hours.

They paid £180 for a taxi from Stansted to Gatwick, only to find that their next flight from Gatwick to Oslo had been cancelled.

In desperation, the family spent another £1,000 for four tickets from Heathrow on a flight today. Mr Ravenscroft, 50, said: 'When we landed at Stansted we were stuck on the tarmac for three hours.

'People were shouting, saying they just wanted to get off.

'We were told there would be three coaches to get us to Gatwick, but there was nothing. We had to pay £180 for a taxi.

'We finally arrived at 3.30am for a 9am flight. They let us check our bags in so we thought we were travelling, then they called us to the gate and gave them back.

'We've now paid £1,000 for four one-way tickets to Norway for Friday morning from Heathrow. We're worried there will be a knock-on effect at other airports and we might not even make it.'

He added: 'The drone is really worrying. Anything could have been dropped on the runway. It's no wonder they take it so seriously.'

Pensioners Robert and Susan Pocknell were due to fly to Spain for Christmas.

They arrived at Gatwick shortly before 4am but were greeted by scenes of chaos, and had to join a massive queue to try to change flights.

After queuing for almost four hours, the couple from Hillingdon, West London, had moved barely 20ft in the queue, which stretched around the south terminal.

Mr Pocknell, 78, said: 'Everybody was arguing. There was no organisation whatsoever. No one even showed us where this queue was, we had to find it ourselves.

'We're going on a package holiday so I'm worried if we don't get to Malaga before Sunday we'll lose our room and won't have a hotel to stay in. I just want a refund and a new flight.

'We haven't even been offered any vouchers to get a bottle of water. It's a shambles.'

His 70-year-old wife added: 'We're British, so we just have to smile and get on with it. I'm more peeved that I might have to go home and cook.'

The scramble to get home for Christmas: Thousands of passengers stranded across the world by Gatwick drone chaos fear they may be stuck as far as 4,100 miles away for festive season

British air passengers stranded around the world are facing a scramble to get home for Christmas as the shockwaves from Gatwick's drone chaos spread around the globe.

The closure of Britain's second busiest airport for more than 30 hours yesterday due to a rogue drone pilot saw scores of flights cancelled and many passengers left in limbo after being diverted to other terminals in Europe.

Those trapped in foreign airports spoke of being forced to sleep on floors and visa complications as the knock-on effects hit other terminals.

Worse still, the huge backlog of flights now waiting to fly into Gatwick means many people stuck abroad face a nervous wait to see if they'll get home for the holidays.

Many are having to fork out for alternative flights, often hopping around the globe in a bid to eventually return to Britain.

Among those stranded abroad are 27 schoolgirls from the Bruton School in Somerset. They were due to be back with their families last night, but had to stay on in Innsbruck, Austria following a ski trip.

Teachers are hoping they can get on a flight today to return to their anxious parents.

More than 120,000 passengers were unable to either take off or land at the airport from 9pm on Wednesday and throughout Thursday.

A further 126,000 passengers were due to travel today, but 145 out of the scheduled 837 flights have already been cancelled as aircraft are out of position and the airport's operations are restricted to just a few departures and arrivals per hour.

Holidaymakers who went on pre-Christmas breaks to the Caribbean face long delays in getting back.

Some are now flying to New York, before transferring on flights to Europe and then getting Eurostar trains to London, with some journeys planned over three days.

Londoner Jennifer, who is stuck in Jamaica, tweeted Gatwick bosses saying: 'I would like to get home for Christmas, but I'm stranded abroad at the moment. Is there any chance you could shoot the drones down?'

Dan Walters, from Wales, posted online: 'Flight from Antigua to Gatwick cancelled this evening. Now having to fly to New York tomorrow and then on to Heathrow.'

However, he saw the funny side, joking: 'There are worse places to be stranded though..'

Jon Carles and his partner are stuck in Lanzarote. Speaking yesterday, he told MailOnline: 'We were supposed to be to flying back to Gatwick today with EasyJet, but no one knows what's going on here and what's going to happen.

'Managed to get through to easyJet after 45 minutes on hold and they told us to wait until 6pm and see what happens. And if gets cancelled we can't get a flight back with them for 48hours.'

One flyer hoping to reach London had to land in Paris - where he was told that he'd be diverted back to the UK on a bus. Others paid for hotels in the French capital out of their own pockets after failing to get information from their airlines.

Corinne Roberts said that her parents-in-law were stuck in a departure lounge in Brussels as their visa don't allow them to enter the country beyond that point.

Joseph Ouechen, a photographer from Morocco, was due to fly into Gatwick on Wednesday night but had his flight diverted to Paris.

After arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport at midnight, passengers with visas for the Schengen area were taken to a hotel but those without - 'about 20 per cent' - were left in the airport to fend for themselves, he said.

'There were families with babies who couldn't get to their suitcases for their milk and stuff,' he said. 'We were asking just for a favour if (airport staff) could help but they said they couldn't do anything.'

Firefighters eventually crossed the border through passport control with blankets and water at 3.30am, he said.

'To be honest, I'm so tired and when the guys from the fire (service) came with the bottles and blankets I was feeling like a war, like (I was) a refugee, but I'm just flying to the UK.

'It's surreal. I was flying to the UK and now there are firemen bringing me water and blankets.'

Those who didn't find themselves stuck abroad had to land more than 100 miles from their destination once they made their way back to the UK.

Chris Lister, from Somerset, who owns an online business, was travelling back from Kiev with his wife Freya.

He was due to land at Gatwick at 9.45pm yesterday but ended up trapped on the plane on the tarmac at Birmingham Airport until 6am.

'There were quite a few babies and kids on board, I think they were struggling more than we were and one woman had run out milk,' he said.

After starting his journey in Bangkok on Tuesday he was finally let off the plane at 6am, he said.

Gareth Jones praised easyJet's response to the chaos, telling MailOnline: 'My son was due to fly home from Salzburg this morning on an Easyjet flight that was obviously cancelled.

'They have transferred him to the same flight tomorrow and put him up in a four-star hotel, with meals, overnight.

'Fortunately, he has no work commitments or time issues so it's not a bad deal at the end of the day. easyJet get some bad press but this is good service on their part.'

Sally Gardiner, who is in Nice, France, said: 'The problems caused by this malicious person extend way beyond Gatwick. My son was to join me in Nice today for a break before Christmas.

'I don't see him very often so my disappointment is immense.

'I have also paid in advance for his accommodation.

'I have French friends who were due to fly from Nice to Gatwick tomorrow for connecting flight to USA to spend Christmas with families there. The knock on effect is massive.'

Killer lasers, high-tech jammers or tracking the signal: How the police could destroy the Gatwick drone of misery... so why haven't they already?

The criminal who is illegally flying a drone at Gatwick Airport is being hunted by police and military personnel using cutting-edge technology.

Gatwick has been brought to a standstill in the wake of the rogue drone terrorising the airport.

Several methods have been developed including laser-laden drones, high-tech jammers and tracking the signal via triangulation which may be used to end the fiasco.

Human snipers have also been brought in to help with the pursuit of the drone.

The Army has been working on a 'Drone Dome' or 'kill-jammer' - which can 'soft kill' a drone by knocking out its communications or a 'hard kill' by shooting it down with a laser from up to two miles away - and may use this prototypical technology.

It remains unknown when the debacle will end and normal service will be resumed and how the drone fiasco will be drawn to a close.

Frequency jammers and early warning systems are common near US runways but are seldom employed in the UK. Communication between the drone and the operator can also be used to pinpoint its location through triangulation, in a similar way to mobile phone tracking.

Police are having difficulty locating the operator as the drone disappears when they close in with via triangulation.

The process requires constant connection and if it is lost, so is the location of the perpetrator. As the drone disappears the signal vanishes and police are then unable to narrow down the location of the suspect.

Radio transmitters operate with a specific frequency range, one that has been set aside for RC car/aircraft use.

If the drone is recovered, it should be a formality for the authorities to successfully identify the other component.

Physical methods of destroying the troublesome drone focus around two main ideas; a physical destruction of the device and a communications block which will see the drone lose contact with its controller and drop out the sky.

In May, London Southend Airport tested an anti-drone system which uses a combination of radio frequency and optical sensors to detect nearby drones.

The week-long trial using Metis Aerospace's Skyperion product saw test drones flown within a 2.5-mile (4km) radius of the airport in Essex - 40 miles away from London - for the two sensors to pick up, and it was said to have been a success.

In August, it was revealed that the British Army had bought an Israeli anti-drone system, which will be used to protect sensitive facilities in the UK.

The Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radars technology by Rada Electronic Industrials is said to provide 360-degree surveillance and be able to detect drones 3.5km (2.2 miles) away.

The Drone Dome, in which the technology is embedded, can disable an airborne drone in two seconds from its five kilowatt 'hard kill laser effector'.

Meanwhile a system developed by three British companies which is capable of jamming signals on unmanned aerial vehicle was trialled in its first public test by the US Federal Aviation Authority in June 2016.

The Anti-UAV Defense System (Auds) system - built by Enterprise, Chess Systems and Blighter - uses high powered radio waves to disable drones, effectively blocking their communication and switching them off in mid-air.

More recently in November 2017, a 'detective early warning system' and 'drone interference system' against unmanned aerial vehicles was trialled at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport in China, which has also faced issues with drones near airports.

The Cangqin system - which can work in all weather conditions - can monitor a low-altitude airspace five miles (8km) in diameter, and locate a drone three seconds after it becomes operative within the supervised range.

Earlier this year, China demonstrated the capability of its drone-killing lasers have successfully destroyed an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from 1,000 feet (300 metres) away.

Back in Britain, research funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) found that a drone weighing 400g (14oz) could smash a helicopter windscreen, and one weighing 2kg (4lbs) could critically damage an airliner's windscreen.</s>Thousands of people have been stranded at one of the UK’s busiest airports because of several drones spotted in the area. Sussex Police reported that the drones were “a deliberate act to disrupt the airport” but they are not treating it as terror-related</s>UK police say 2 people arrested for suspected 'criminal use of drones' in Gatwick Airport case

LONDON (AP) — UK police say 2 people arrested for suspected 'criminal use of drones' in Gatwick Airport case.
Two people are arrested by Sussex Police and charged with "criminal use of drones".