What the heck is going on at London's Gatwick Airport?
Chaos has erupted at one of the United Kingdom's busiest airports right before the holidays — and it's all because of a couple of drones.
London's Gatwick Airport, the second biggest airport in the U.K., has been shut down since Wednesday night because of drones flying near the runway, per CNN. Flights were grounded or diverted beginning at about 9 p.m. GMT, and they have still not resumed, although the airport briefly re-opened early Thursday before another drone sighting led officials to shut runways again.
Police are searching for the operators of the drones and say "each time we believe we get close to the operator, the drone disappears." The drones are reportedly "of an industrial size" as opposed to those you can "buy from the shops," BBC News reports. Police are describing this as a "deliberate act," though they do not believe it is terror-related. For now, it seems they don't know how to get the drones down. "The police advice is that it would be dangerous to seek to shoot the drone down because of what may happen to the stray bullets," said the airport's chief operating officer, Chris Woodroofe.
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About 110,000 passengers were scheduled to fly through Gatwick on Thursday morning, and they're being told "not to travel to the airport and to check with your airline on the status of your flight." Woodroofe said the chaos is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. "At this stage we are not open and I cannot tell you what time we will open," he told BBC News.
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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
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