Police responding to ongoing incident at Gatwick Airport

Officers say that the "emergency" situation at Gatwick Airport is not due to drone activity.

Twitter user, About East Grinstead, claimed this morning that there was a police presence at the airport and said it may be related to "unconfirmed reports of unauthorised drone activity".

They said: "There clearly was an emergency situation at Gatwick, not being reported, this morning.

"Unconfirmed reports of unauthorised drone activity, but caution advised as it might just be speculation."

Hi @AboutEG Sussex Police are currently dealing with an ongoing incident at Gatwick Airport. We will release more information in due course but it is not related to a drone incident.

— Sussex Police (@sussex_police) December 19, 2021

However, Sussex Police have since responded that this is not the case.

They said: "Hi @AboutEG Sussex Police are currently dealing with an ongoing incident at Gatwick Airport.

"We will release more information in due course but it is not related to a drone incident."

A second Twitter user, Dr. Eka Iakobishvili, says she was on a plane at the airport and reportedly claims "special forces and machine guns" were surrounding it. 

We believe the incident is related to this @Eka_ia said this morning "Hi there, we are stuck in the aircraft with special forces and machine guns surrounding the plane. Can you tell what is happening? Thanks!" https://t.co/lHZ6G7vyO6

— Sussex News - Breaking News for Sussex (@SussexIncidents) December 19, 2021

She has since said that passengers were told there was a “very serious security threat”.

No threat was reportedly found.

“Very serious security threat”
Took almost five hours to screen ppl & bags… no threat found.
Police handled it well.

— Dr. Eka Iakobishvili (@Eka_ia) December 19, 2021

Sussex Police have now confirmed there was a false bomb threat reported at the airport this morning. 

A spokesman said: "On Sunday 19 December we received a report of an apparent bomb threat that had been made to a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul that was due to arrive at Gatwick.

"The aircraft arrived safely into Gatwick at 9.20am to a remote area of the airport while emergency services attended.

"It was swiftly established that the call did not relate to a genuine threat, everyone on board left the aircraft and passengers went on their way.

"We worked with Gatwick Airport management and with air traffic control to ensure the incident was resolved quickly and safely and there was minimal impact on the normal routine of the airport."

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