Gibraltar-Gatwick flight among those forced to divert on Sunday after reported drone activity

By PA and Chronicle staff

The easyJet flight from Gibraltar to Gatwick on Sunday was diverted to Luton following reports of a drone near the UK airfield.

The flight from Gibraltar was one of 12 that had to be diverted to other airports because of the alert, which disrupted flights for about an hour.

“Following reports of drone activity and the temporary closure of the London Gatwick runway , a number of flights were unable to operate as planned including flight EZ8792 from Gibraltar to London Gatwick which diverted to Luton,” a spokesperson for easyJet told the Chronicle.

“The flight continued to Gatwick as soon as the airport reopened.”

“Whilst this was outside of our control, we are sorry for the inconvenience this will have caused.”

“The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority.”

Gatwick Airport had previously cancelled or diverted around 1,000 flights between December 19-21, 2018 because of drone reports.

No culprit was found, and there was criticism over the amount of time it took for the runway at the West Sussex airport to reopen.

A Gatwick spokesman was unable to say whether a drone had been discovered after the latest reported sighting.

The spokesman said: “Passenger safety is the airport’s absolute priority and – following established procedures – operations at London Gatwick were suspended temporarily at 1344, while investigations into the sighting of a suspected drone close to the airfield took place.”

“These investigations have now completed and the airfield reopened at 1435. Twelve inbound aircraft were diverted to other airports during the investigation, however we expect many of these to return to London Gatwick today.”