Hundreds of flights delayed after drone sightings on Heathrow airport
The Met Police is investigating the second drone incident at a London airport in two weeks
Flights out of London Heathrow have returned to normal after they were suspended late yesterday following reports of a drone being flown close to one of the world's busiest airports.
Thousands of people experienced delays after the airport's departure runway had to be closed a drone was reportedly sighted flying close to the runway. Departures were suspended for about an hour, but the airport is now fully operational again.
Police claim to have secured the area and are todaycarrying out extensive searches around the airport's runways.
According to Commander Stuart Cundy of the Metropolitan Police, a full criminal investigation has been launched.
The police deployed specialist equipment to monitor the airspace around Heathrow. This enabled them to quickly detect and disrupt any further drone activity in the area.
The police also called-in military assistance in their investigation, but would not discuss any further tactics to identify the people responsible for launching the drone.
Officers were among the witnesses who saw the drone. This prompted authorities to assume that the sightings were real.
The drone sighting comes only three weeks after a drone caused severe disruptions at Gatwick airport. Yesterday's sightings raised fears that Heathrow airport could face similar disruptions. The Met Police is not excluding the possibility of a connection between the people behind both incidents.
Following the sightings, the government announced that it would look into strengthening the laws against deploying drones around airports. It is already illegal to fly a drone within one kilometre of an airport boundary under laws brought in on 30 May 2018. It is also illegal to fly a drone above around 120 metres.
The laws were introduced following an increase in the number of drone incidents with aircraft, which numbered 93 in 2017.
And anyone found guilty of flying a drone across an airfield could be punished with a life sentence, the Metropolitan Police warned.
Speaking to ITV, David Lidington, Minister of the Cabinet Office, said that following yesterday's incident he expects airports to invest more money into technology detecting and disrupting drones close to their airfields.