A YOUTUBE star has claimed responsibility for a “Welcome to Luton” sign at Gatwick.

Passengers on flights into the Sussex airport were taken aback when they saw the huge white lettering in a field as they came in to land.

Gatwick is more than 60 miles from Luton.

Abbey Desmond, who was flying into Gatwick from Cancun in Mexico, shared a photo of the sign on Twitter. It has been liked and shared more than 25,000 times.

YouTuber Max Fosh has since claimed responsibility for the stunt, and shared the story behind the idea in a video uploaded to YouTube entitled "I Made Tourists Think They Landed At The Wrong Airport".

In the video, which has almost one million views in less than 24 hours, Max debates what the 80-metre message should say.

The Argus: YouTuber Max Fosh (left) setting up ‘Welcome to Luton’ sign at Gatwick airport YouTuber Max Fosh (left) setting up ‘Welcome to Luton’ sign at Gatwick airport

“I know I want it to be something like ‘Welcome to’ but I don’t know where I want to be welcoming them to,” he said.

“I want passengers to think genuinely for half a second that they have actually landed in the wrong place.”

After debating which city to choose, Max decided on Luton.

“There is reputation about Luton that I’m not going to confirm or deny whether I agree with,” he said. “But it’s considered to be the worst of the London airports – mainly because it’s not in London.”

After employing an artist to make the white lettering, Max, who has 951,000 subscribers and more than 75 million views, then took a flight from Heathrow to Gatwick to view the message himself.

He said renting the land and making the sign cost him more than £4,000.

Max’s other stunts include running for London mayor, becoming a member of the Royal Family for 43 minutes and breaking into an international security convention.

During an interview on BBC Three Counties Radio, he said: "It's my job to make videos and my videos are all about doing silly things, to put a smile on people's faces but just to be silly, I'm glad this stunt has gone down well."

He said he was inspired by a similar stunt in 2015 when an American man who lived near Milwaukee Airport wrote “Welcome to Cleveland” on the roof of his home.