Gatwick Airport was forced to shut its runway for almost an hour due to a “suspected drone incident”.

A Gatwick spokesperson said: “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.”

They added that passenger safety was the airport’s “absolute priority”.

The disrupted flights included a British Airways flight from Mallorca to Gatwick, diverted to Stansted Airport, and an easyJet flight from Venice, diverted to Luton Airport.

Landings have since resumed at the airport, in Crawley, West Sussex.

Gatwick Airport’s runway was shut down for 30 hours in December 2018 due to a three-day incident involving drone sightings.

The incident at Gatwick, Britain’s second busiest airport, was the first time a major airport in the UK had been shut down due to drones.

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The disruption affected more than 140,000 passengers across a total of 1,000 flights.

Two suspects from the town of Crawley – only a few miles from the airport – were arrested at the time. However, they were later released, with no further action taken.

No one has ever been charged over the incident, which Gatwick insisted was a sophisticated, malicious and well-planned attack.

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