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Unauthorized Drones at Gatwick Airport Force Airport Closure

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Updated: February 17, 2022

Unauthorized drone activity at Gatwick Airport has forced the airport to halt operations for much of Thursday, 20 December and disruptions are expected to continue through Friday, 21 December. The drone flights have led to over 100 diverted flights since 2100 UTC 19 December and over 550 flights have been canceled at Gatwick during the busy pre-Christmas travel period.

View flights at Gatwick Airport

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Diversions and cancellations

Over 100 flights have diverted away from Gatwick since late Wednesday evening, with Stansted taking in the most and aircraft diverting as far away as Amsterdam, Paris, and Shannon.

These statistics will be updated as flights continue to divert.

Diversions from Gatwick through late afternoon 20 December.

Nearly 600 flights have already been canceled today and that number is expected to rise as the airport will remain closed until at least 06:00 UTC on 21 December.

You can view the full Gatwick Airport arrival and departure boards here.

LGW

Published: December 20, 2018

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Ian Petchenik

Ian Petchenik’s love of aviation began at an early age growing up next to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. As Flightradar24’s director of communications and co-host of the AvTalk podcast Ian now gets to share that passion for aviation with millions of Flightradar24 users and listeners around the world.

Ian Petchenik

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