drone shut down England's second largest airport for 30 hours earlier this week. Police are hunting for people who operated drone. police believe these people are "eco-warriors". These are activists who take part in protests or take action to raise awareness of environmental problems. drone prevented flights from leaving UK's Gatwick Airport on Wednesday and Thursday. The airport was forced to close its runway. Over 120,000 travellers have been affected. Many of them were trying to fly home for Christmas. Instead, they had to sleep on airport floor or try to find flights from other airports. Some passengers spent nine hours sitting on plane near boarding gate.
British government is now talking about actions it can take if other people use drones to cause chaos. They are worried people could use drones to attack airports, nuclear power stations and other important buildings. Police said they were in " game of cat and mouse" with drone. They said: "Each time we believe we got close to operator, the drone disappears; when we look to reopen airfield, the drone reappears again." This happened many times. Hundreds of police officers and British Army helped to find the drone's operator, but couldn't. The police are worried drone could cause plane to crash. operator of drone could face up to five years in jail.
