What the heck is going on at London's Gatwick Airport?

Gatwick Airport
(Image credit: Dan Kitwood / Getty Images)

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.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

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.

Explore More
Brendan Morrow

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.