UK: Flights resume at Heathrow after drone disruption

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) - All flights have resumed at the U.K.’s busiest hub after a disruption that lasted around an hour Tuesday evening following reports of a drone sighting.

The Metropolitan Police said it was investigating the alleged drone sighting which led to outgoing flights from Heathrow Airport being temporarily grounded.

"As a precautionary measure, we have stopped departures while we investigate,” Heathrow Airport said on Twitter before later resuming flights.

The closure affected only the north runway which departing planes were using, and it has since reopened, the airport later said.

The incident came in the wake of last month’s disruption at another London gateway, Gatwick Airport.

Gatwick was reopened after a 36-hour halt in operations due to drones spotted over the runway, but disruptions caused hundreds of flights cancelled, delayed, or redirected to other airports.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said he has spoken to the home and defense secretaries and that the military is "preparing to deploy equipment used at Gatwick should it prove necessary."

Last month military personnel and equipment were used to tackle the drones at Gatwick, which had disrupted all flights.