An aerial photograph of the Gatwick Airport image : Gatwick Airport

According to a statement from the Sussex Police, Two persons – a 47-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman, both from the town of Crawley – have been detained on suspicion of disrupting civil aviation services after illegal drone activity led to a shutdown of flight operations at Gatwick Airport, the U.K.’s second busiest, for 36 hours.

“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.” The Sussex police said. Further information on the detained individuals was not given.

An aerial photograph of the Gatwick Airport  image : Gatwick Airport

A first drone sighting occurred around 9 p.m. on Wednesday followed by a buzz of the Gatwick Airport runway over 40 times within 48 hours, This forced officials to shutdown and re-open flight operations at the airport several times. It’s unclear if this disruption involved one drone, or more.

According to officials, various drone sightings forced the call-off or diversion of more than 1,000 flights over three days with some 140,000 persons affected. “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 Sussex Police said.

A Norwegian Dreamliner lands at the Gatwick Airport image : Gatwick Airport

The arrests were made just after 10pm on Friday, December 21st on suspicion of “disrupting services of civil aviation aerodrome to endanger or likely to endanger safety of operations or persons.” according to its statement.

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