Gatwick airport shuts runway after reports of nearby drone activity

LONDON (AP) — London’s Gatwick Airport closed its runway for almost an hour on Sunday after a drone was reported nearby. Officials at Britain’s second-busiest airport said 12 incoming flights had to be diverted to other airports. The airport said that “following established procedures operations at London Gatwick were suspended” for about 50 minutes while the sighting was investigated. A Gatwick spokesman was unable to say whether a drone had been discovered. In December 2018, more than 140,000 travelers were stranded or delayed after dozens of drone sightings shut down Gatwick for parts of three consecutive days. A months-long police investigation failed to identify the culprits or determine how many of the sightings were real.