Police spent £450,000 on drone crisis at Gatwick Airport

Police spent £450,000 on drone crisis at Gatwick Airport but are no closer to catching who did it

Thousands of flights at Gatwick Airport were cancelled or delayed because of the drone sightings

**The threats drones can pose to the public have been highlighted by the Gatwick chaos** (Image: PA)

Police spent more than £450,000 on the drone crisis at Gatwick Airport which grounded over 1,000 flights just before Christmas.

More than 140,000 passengers had their flights cancelled, diverted or delayed due to the airport closing for more than 30 hours from December 19 to 21 as police tried to find whoever was flying the drones.

In the end the Army had to be called in but police have still not been able to work out who was behind the mayhem, which they have said was a “deliberate” attempt to cause chaos.

Now, three months on, the astronomical amount of money police spent during the crisis has been revealed.

The Sunday Mirror reports that Sussex Police forked out £419,000 on the search for the drones, including £332,000 on overtime and extra bank holiday pay

They also spent £52,000 to base 10 specialist officers at the airport – reduced to four this month – and £12,000 on aid from neighbouring forces in Cambridge and Essex.

The rest of the bill was £5,000 on transport, £4,000 on search equipment and £14,000 on officers’ food and accommodation.

Surrey Police also spent £40,000 in overtime as part of the operation. The MoD has yet to compile its final bill for the incident.