Gatwick Airport experienced three days of major disruption due to drone sightings near the airport’s runway. Around 1,000 flights were disrupted, ruining Christmas travel plans of over 150,000 people. Thousands of passengers remained at the airport during the chaos, and many others had to spend the night in another country or city, unable to fly into Gatwick. The airport was shut down on the evening of 19 December, briefly reopened in the early hours of 20 December, but was then shut down 45 minutes later after another drone sighting. Whilst Sussex police investigated the illegal drone sightings, military equipment was deployed on 21 January, enabling the airport to reopen.