Hi everyone, we’re going to close down this blog.

I will be back with a fresh blog following the developments at Gatwick in a few hours, which we will run throughout Friday, so see you all soon.

If you’re stuck at the airport, preparing to miss out on spending Christmas in the city you were hoping to, or weighing up whether it’s worth heading to Gatwick tomorrow to see if you can get your flight, I wish you the very best of luck.

Thanks for following along. See you in a bit.

In case you’re wondering, ‘what damage could a drone really do to a plane?’, this video, which shows tests performed at the University of Dayton Research Institute’s Impact Physics Lab, shows the havoc that even small drones can wreak on aircraft.

Some tricky stories and dilemmas coming in from readers. Anthea is stuck in Las Vegas for Christmas with her family, which is really rough, I hope you find a way to make that an OK experience Anthea.

This is a huge dilemma from Andrina, who has a flight due to leave at 6:20am Friday and has a two-year-old, so is wondering whether to go down there.

That’s really difficult Andrina, and is similar to other stories from readers coming in, like this one from Yiannis.

I really wish I had a way of giving you a definitive answer on this, but I don’t and I can’t really advise you, you’re the one who will has to weigh holding a grumpy baby at 4am at a potentially closed airport against the risk of missing your flight, but here’s what we do know:

Earlier tonight (around 9:30pm) Gatwick’s chief operating officer Chris Woodroofe said the airline would be reviewing the situation overnight to see “whether there is any potential to open tomorrow” but they are “working up contingency plans all the way through to no flights tomorrow.”

Woodroofe said the situation remained “fluid”, the drone operator(s) had not yet been found and at the time he said the airport is expected to be closed for the “foreseeable future” while the hunt for the drone operator continues.

The airport’s advice is that those due to travel on Friday should check with their airline before arriving at the airport, which I understand is not really very helpful advice for people who are weighing up whether to leave Oxford at 4am to make it to their early morning flight or whether to take their two-year-old to the airport early this morning.

But, such is the frustrating, “fluid” nature of this situation, I’m afraid that’s the best information I can give.

Simon Gascoigne has had a very rough journey. He barely made it out of Sydney yesterday, which was hit with huge hailstorms, and made it to Taipei, from where he is meant to fly to Gatwick. He says the flight, which is meant to leave in 15 minutes and has now been pushed back to an unknown departure time.

Anyone have tips for how to celebrate a Taiwanese Christmas?

A few questions coming in from readers about when the airport will reopen and whether people booked on flights leaving Gatwick tomorrow should travel to the airport.

Firstly, my commiserations to anyone in this situation. The best answer I can give is that you should check the specific advice being given by your airline first thing in the morning.

For example, EasyJet, which operates almost half of all flights at the Sussex airport, warned this afternoon that passengers should not to travel to Gatwick on Friday until checking the status of the flight, adding: “At this stage there is no indication of when the airport might re-open ... We expect disruption to continue into tomorrow.”

Ryanair said all its scheduled services to and from Gatwick on Friday would operate from Stansted.

If any more announcements come from airlines or the aiport itself tonight, I’ll bring that to you - please flag up anything you see and thanks everyone for your questions and for getting in touch, please do tweet me if you have any questions or a story you want to share.

Ben Machell, from the Times, has started a rather amazing Twitter thread imagining what might be unfolding right now, after a flight from New York to London was diverted, forcing the plane to land in Doncaster.

He suggests that this is the perfect set-up for a Christmas movie starring a “dagger-heeled Manhattan executive” played by Sandra Bullock, who falls in love with an “East Coast mainline signalman” played by Sean Bean.

The entire thread is comedy gold, I recommend reading it in full (and if you’re currently stuck at Gatwick, let’s be honest, you’ve got the time). Others are chiming in with suggestions including “Bill Nighy as the grounded pilot in a sub-plot who finds love with Joanna Lumley’s air hostess”. I would watch that movie.

Good evening everyone, this is Kate Lyons taking over the blog from my colleague Nadeem Badshah.

If you are still reading this blog at 12:45am, as many of you are, then you are either not in Britain but are fascinated by the madness of this delay, or you’re in the UK waiting to hear if you’ll be able to get your flight tomorrow, or perhaps you’re trapped in Gatwick airport, trying to sleep slumped against your luggage or hunched on an uncomfortable seat in the horrible glare of bright lights as the airport tannoy announces further delays and other non-news.

If that is you, you have my very sincere sympathy. Airports are terrible at the best of times, but when you’re trapped there for a long period, with no sense of when you’ll be able to leave, they are veritable hell-holes.

I’ll be bringing you any news as it comes through over the next little while. If you have a story, a picture or a whinge to share get in touch with me on Twitter on @mskatelyons. I am not trapped in Gatwick, but I’m with you in spirit and in this blog.

Gisele Fenech, 43, who was travelling to Malta, was among those stranded at the airport tonight.

“We’re meeting family and it’s my daughter’s birthday today so it’s gone all wrong,” she told AFP.

“We’ve been looking forward to this for so long.

“Everyone’s trying to get home for Christmas.”

Karl Turner, the shadow aviation minister, said regulations around drones were not tight enough and echoed the British airline pilots’ association in blaming Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, for failing to act.

“There should be wider exclusion zones around airports - I think the law says one kilometre at the moment, it should probably be five kilometres according to the experts,” he told BBC2’s Newsnight.

“The Government should have brought this legislation forward, it’s been an abject failure and I blame Chris Grayling.

“He should have been in the House of Commons today making a statement and explaining to MPs why the Government has failed to bring this legislation forward.”

The body representing pilots said the government has not been listening to calls for a 5km (3.1 miles) exclusion zone.

Current laws state that drones are banned from flying within 1km (0.6 miles) of UK airport boundaries in a bid to improve flight safety.

Captain Dave Smith, British airline pilots’ association spokesman, said: “We feel very let down by the government because we invested in some research last year with the Department for Transport and the Military Aviation Authority proved that these drones, that only weigh 2kg, but have batteries and motors, can cause catastrophic accidents if they hit an aircraft.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Tingley said “we have a number of persons of interest that we are following up.”

“We are following all lines of inquiry and that would include particular groups.

“The military are here completely as a supportive role, it’s a police lead investigation and operation, and they are here to provide that additional support.”

He added: “We have to work on the assumption that this is a professionally prepared drone with the intent of causing the disruption that it has.”

A few people have welcomed the disruption including this traveller in Sevilla..

Det Ch Supt Jason Tingley said that firearms could be used to shoot down the drone.

Mr Tingley said the use of firearms “will be within our suite of tactical options available to us going forward”.

“The assessment earlier on today was that we wouldn’t be using firearms and capability to deal with the drone.

“This is a continually reviewed process so you will know and have seen that we have firearms officers deployed today.”

Chris Woodroofe, Gatwick’s chief operating officer, added that contingency plans were being considered including to cancel flights tomorrow.

He said:

I think what’s clear from the last 24 hours is that drones are a UK aviation issue, or even an international aviation issue.

“We have had the police, we have had the military seeking to bring this drone down for the last 24 hours and to date that has not been successful.

“So Gatwick Airport is still closed, it’s closed for the rest of this evening and our intention is to review on an ongoing basis whether we can open tomorrow.

“But we are working up contingency plans all the way through to no flights tomorrow.”

The number of cancelled flights today now stands at 657 out of 760 that were scheduled.

Further disruption is expected tomorrow sadly with Gatwick advising passengers not to come to the airport.

Police are continuing their investigation to try and find the operator of the drones that have brought Gatwick to a standstill for around 24 hours.

Extra staff will be at Gatwick during the night on patrol to assist vulnerable passengers including those with young children and the elderly.

The airport said that water is being handed out throughout the terminals while food and drinks outlets are being stocked up with fresh supplies.

The heating will remain turned on throughout the night.

They added that train ticket restrictions have been lifted and passengers with tickets for Thursday can use them tomorrow.

Carl and Lisa McCluskey and their two young daughters, from Lincolnshire, are among the stranded passengers preparing to spend the night in the terminal after hotels in the area became fully booked.

The couple found out from an air stewardess that their flight to Egypt was delayed until further notice.

Mr McCluskey, 44, said: “It’s mindless idiots probably, they know what they’re doing to hundreds of thousands of people.

“They would have seen the disruption to come out again this afternoon.”

The family said their two-week trip cost about £6,500.

The drone keeps reappearing before the runway can reopen, according to Sky News.

It is coming up to 23 hours since the disruption began and the perpetrator(s) remain at large.

At Athens International Airport, EasyJet passengers are furious that they were not informed earlier of flight cancellations in contrast to those flying domestically in the UK.

Passengers on the 1:10 PM flight to Gatwick learned more than seven hours after check-ins closed that the flight had been indefinitely suspended after being told initially it had only been delayed by an hour.

One traveller said:

By the time my daughter woke up she had been informed her flight from Edinburgh to Gatwick today had been cancelled while here we were told to get to the airport and endure the wait.”

Passengers were offered a 4.60 euro refreshment coupon as they endured what airport operators were calling “an open delay.”

An EasyJet manager has predicted that Gatwick was likely to be in chaos for several days given the backlog of flights throughout Europe.

What we have seen has made us ask what if the same thing happened in Athens,” he said expressing fears of a coordinated drone disruption across Europe.

At Heathrow Airport meanwhile, a computer system used by several airlines failed.

The Amadeus Check in system crashed for about 20 minutes at around 3.30pm.

However, British Airways said no flights have been delayed and the system is back in business.

A BA spokesman said no flights will be delayed or diverted as a result of the glitch.

Friday is expected to be the the busiest travel day of the year as millions of people embark on the Christmas getaway.

Abta, the travel trade organisation, expects more than 4.7 million people to head abroad from the UK between this week and January 2nd.

Stewart Wingate, the Gatwick chief executive, has said he is “not in a position to say when it will be safe to reopen the airport”.

Mark Tanzer, the Abta chief executive, said: “Christmas and New Year are always very busy times for the travel industry as people head off to spend their well-earned holidays with family and friends.”

He added:

“Whether holidaymakers are flying away for some winter sun, travelling to a snowy destination or staying closer to home, this year’s festive break looks set to be another busy one.

“It’s important people allow extra time for their journeys and check ahead for any disruption if travelling by public transport.”

A few people in the Gatwick area have shown commendable community/Christmas spirit by offering stranded passengers a roof over their head.

Stewart Wingate, chief executive of Gatwick airport, has released a statement but gave no indication of when the airport would reopen. He urged passengers to check with their airline or on the airport’s website.

He said:

Although not for today, these events obviously highlight a wider strategic challenge for aviation in this country which we need to address together with speed - the aviation industry, Government and all the other relevant authorities. It cannot be right that drones can close a vital part of our national infrastructure in this way. This is obviously a relatively new technology and we need to think through together the right solutions to make sure it cannot happen again.

In the meantime all our focus is on sorting the current challenge and getting services back to normal for passengers. At the moment, I am not in a position to say with certainty when that might be but everyone is doing whatever they can to help make that happen.”

The Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, said there was no known motive for the pilot of the drone, which he said was a commercial one.

Jaz Banga, the founder of the US company Airspace, told Sky News it could take up to two days to find the drones.

His company works with the US army to detect drones and says all airports should have perimeter systems in place to detect drones. But he said it took time to find drones, even active ones:

It takes about two days to get a system set up. These systems have to target very small signals. Some of these drones can fly 5km or 6km from an operator.

You have to detect the drone when it comes in, identify it, if it’s a police drone or something [else], and then capture it.

Once we find the drone, we deploy an automated system to capture the drone and put it in a bomb box.

The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, said:

This is clearly a very serious ongoing incident in which substantial drones have been used to bring about the temporary closure of a major international airport. The people who were involved should face the maximum possible custodial sentence for the damage they have done. The government is doing everything it can to support Sussex police.

Downing Street has announced that a “cross-Whitehall meeting of officials” has been taking place from 3pm about the Gatwick situation. It has been held in the Cabinet Office briefings rooms, though it is not formally a meeting of Cobra, the civil contingencies committee which takes its acronym from these rooms.

May’s spokesman said:

The point of those meetings is to bring together all of the officials from all the relevant departments in one place so you have an accurate picture of events and make sure that all available resources are being deployed. This is a serious incident, it’s causing widespread disruption for passengers. The intention, obviously, is that it should brought to a close as soon as possible.

Officials involved came from the Department for Transport, police and the Home Office civil contingencies secretariat, among others, he said. May was being “regularly updated” on the situation.

On legislative responses to the situation, the spokesman said that a consultation into what further steps could be taken to curb drone misuse had recently closed, with a response due “very early in the new year”. New laws could then follow.

May’s spokesman said he had nothing to say on the use of the military.

The defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, told Sky News:

Sussex police have requested assistance and support from the armed forces and we will be deploying the armed forces to give them the help that they need to deal with the situation with the drones at Gatwick airport.

It goes to demonstrate how our armed forces are always there ready to support the civilian authorities.”

When asked what the armed forces’ role would be, Williamson said:

That is not something we can reveal. We are there to assist and do everything we can.

By the early afternoon, Gatwick’s coffee shops were beginning to run out of food, yet remained full of dozens of weary travellers. Groups clustered around power points, some laughing and joking in solidarity, others staring into glowing portals of escapism.

Messages on the airport’s PA system told them precisely nothing: the uncertainty continued. Zak Morgan, 20, a computer science student at UCL, had been waiting since 8.45pm on Wednesday for what should have been a 30-minute flight to Paris. He had made it onboard, only to sit there for hours before getting off.

The journey was rescheduled via Barcelona, due to depart at 3pm – which would have extended it to six hours. But before that could happen that flight was also cancelled. “Every hour they have been changing the flight times, so instead of saying go home, they’ve been telling us to stay,” Morgan said.

Oz Demirkol, 26, was waiting for a flight home to Oslo for Christmas. She said:

We arrived at 9.30am because our initial flight was at 11.35am. That got cancelled and now we have rebooked another flight and we’re waiting for that – but now the Eurocontrol are saying there are no flights until 7pm.

Despite the long wait and overcrowding Demirkol, like many other passengers, did not feel angry.

To be honest there is very little to feel angry about. It’s not in anyone’s control, we are just waiting for it to be solved. I don’t think that it’s time to be frustrated. I’m just waiting to see what happens. It’s a security issue, it’s nothing about their ability to plan or organise, or manage demand or supply; it’s about something that’s out of everyone’s control. So it’s good that people aren’t being rash about it, because people have been working really all day around the airport.

With every cloud comes a silver lining ... although try telling that to those stranded at Gatwick.

Sally Pavey of Cagne – Communities Against Gatwick Noise and Emissions – told the Guardian’s transport correspondent, Gwyn Topham, that she had sympathy for stranded passengers and did “not condone people doing such irresponsible acts”. But she added:

The tranquillity was delightful to enjoy. Not a lot of concern is given to people suffering aircraft noise and it does push people to extremes. People jetting off on holiday should once in a while consider the impact they are having on the people on the ground.

People were able to sleep last night because there weren’t aircraft booming off over their head. Gatwick impacts people’s lives.

Renata Alinta, 50, was sat on the floor waiting with her three sons, aged nine, eight and six, in the south terminal, after arriving via a circuitous route from Northern Ireland. They were aiming to catch a flight to the Dominican Republic, where they hoped to spend Christmas.

Her original flight from Belfast to Gatwick had been cancelled, but after BA told her that her flight to the Caribbean was still likely to depart she had paid for another flight to Stansted, then taken a cab to West Sussex in the hope she could still catch it. The detour had cost her an extra £430. She said:

We’ve been waiting since 5am for information and we don’t know if it [the flight] is going to be cancelled. This is our first holiday to the Caribbean and everybody is upset … There are no places to sit, so we are just relaxing. We can’t even get food because people are sitting down in all the cafes.

Despite the hardships, she said she had had good help and support as she tried to rush her three boys around on their journey. The two younger boys were rolling about on the floor in frustration, while the eldest, who was suffering from a cold, dozed with his head in her lap.

Nearby, Tyreese Joseph-Scott, 16, sat with his younger sibling waiting for his family to return with food. They had a flight booked for a Christmas getaway to Montego Bay, Jamaica. He had been at Gatwick since 8.30am, and had no idea when he and his family might get to board a plane.

“It’s a shambles,” he said. Asked what he thought of those operating the drones that had disabled the airport, he said: “They’re just stupid. They’re doing it on purpose, clearly.”

I’ve just been speaking to Tom Chamberlain, the head of general aviation and aerospace at Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty, London (AGCS), which provides corporate and specialty insurance. A pilot himself, he said the whole of the industry is watching what’s going on at Gatwick with intense interest.

He said anti-drone technology such as big net guns could take a drone down and there had even been experiments training hawks and eagles to take out drones. But there is still a lot of debate about what method or technology is most effective.

Most drone operators are operating within the correct regulations and boundaries, he said, and laws in the UK have been tightened in particular this year, “so that you’re not allowed to fly above 400ft and you’re not allowed to fly within 1km of an airport boundary. But clearly there are still some people who are blissfully unaware of these rules or are just flaunting them because they can.”

While it’s possible to hijack someone else’s drone, he said it is unlikely that that is what has happened in the current case.

Give that the technology is relatively cheap, if you wanted to use a drone for nefarious purposes it’s going to be much easier to buy one off the shelf for a couple of grand. What the purpose of what they’re doing there is, is another matter. It’s a strange place to be flying particularly at that time of night so it seems a little odd that they’d be doing that.

He welcomed the introduction from next year of the need for owners to register their drones, though said this had been the practice in Australia and Germany for some time.

The UK could also take a leaf out of Australia’s book by having a “a central system where you have to submit the job you’re doing with your drone to the central authorities before you’re even allowed to do it”, although that would not apply to personal operators, which those behind the Gatwick drones are likely to be.

In Germany, he said, there was a requirement for everyone to have insurance “regardless of whether you’re a commercial a recreational user”. He added:

We’re asking the authorities to look at whether everyone shouldn’t be insured if they’re flying a drone. After all, whether for business or pleasure, the risks remain the same.

Lastly, he says it’s incidents like that at Gatwick that unfairly give the drone industry a bad name.

Drones are saving lives as part of lifeguard duties, the police are using them to help tackle crime, they’re being used all over the world to do deliveries, medical supplies, and all of this stuff is under threat if the public don’t trust them.

Theresa May insists that anti-drone legislation has been enacted.

Speaking at a press conference with her Polish counterpart she said:

I feel for all those passengers whose travel plans have been disrupted by this drone activity and the action that has had to be taken in response to it. At this particular time of year this is particularly difficult for people.

We have already passed legislation in relation to the use of drones. As it has been made clear, the activity we have seen is illegal and those who are caught endangering aircraft can face up to five years in prison. And we’re consulting on further aspects of this including further police powers.

We will continue to work with the Gatwick authorities in order to bring this to a close such that people will be able to get on to the travel that they were expecting over the Christmas.

Air traffic controllers say their warnings about the risk of drones have been repeatedly ignored.

In a strongly worded statement the Guild of Air Traffic Control Officers said: “Our calls for stricter regulations and enforcement have been repeatedly dismissed by regulatory bodies.”

It has also called for geofencing and other counter-drone measures around airports.

Brian Strutton, the general secretary of the British Airline Pilots’ Association, has called for drone exclusion zones around airports to be extended from 1km to 5km.

He said:

We have been working closely with the Department for Transport on these issues, and we were pleased to see new drone laws put in place earlier this year, but we said they do not go far enough. The government was clear to Balpa that they were open to extending the 1km exclusion zone, and it is now obvious that that must happen urgently. Balpa is calling for a 5km exclusion zone.

“This incident also reinforces the need for registration of drones and licensing of operators so that the police can track and trace drones which are being flown dangerously or irresponsibly and for the industry to invest in technology which can detect drones and stop them from being flown near airports and aircraft.”

The International Air Transport Association has urged governments to do more to “reduce the risk of rogue drone operations”.

Gatwick says the airport will remain shut until at least 4pm while the European aviation agency Eurocontrol says the airport will be shut until at least 6pm.

The government was warned that an incident like this was likely.

In 2016, a report by Lord Harris on London’s preparedness to respond to a terror attack warned of the threat of drones to airports.

The report [pdf] said:

Recently, concerns have been expressed about the potential for drones – either accidentally or with malicious intent – to disrupt flights. In order to address this risk, the Civil Aviation Authority should, building on the work of the House of Lords review into the civil use of drones, ensure that the current legislation relating to the use of drones is suitable. Government should also explore technological options to improve the capacity to restrict drone use or disable them.

Thanks to reader Geoff Baker for the tip.

Southern rail has joined LNER in offering limited free rail travel to people whose flights have been cancelled.

The drones involved are described by the police as “industrial” models.

Sussex police, which is leading the operation, posted a message on Twitter saying: “It is believed that the Gatwick devices used are of an industrial specification. We are continuing to search for the operators.”

Lexie Heath, a former bank worker, had to be given a wheelchair after the stress of having her flight cancelled exacerbated her heart problem, PA reports.

The 73-year-old, who lives in London and was scheduled to fly to Glasgow to be with family for Christmas, said she was not used to travelling alone as her husband died five months ago.

She said airport staff had been “fantastic” in looking after her and that she had been stuck on a stationary plane from 7am for about four hours this morning. She said:

I have a heart problem and when I get stressed it races too fast and sometimes skips a beat. I can get a pain down my arm as well, like pins and needles. This stress has really set me off, very much so. My legs just go.

I’m not that used to travelling alone, it used to be with my husband.

I’m going back up to spend Christmas with my family. My brother died three weeks ago and now I’ll have the extra stress of trying to organise parts of his funeral. I could have really done without this.”

A replacement flight from Gatwick tomorrow morning has been organised for her, she added.

The ripple effects of Gatwick’s closure are being felt across Europe. An EasyJet manager in Athens has confirmed that tonight’s flight out of the Greek capital has been cancelled.

Hundreds of passengers, including me, are still waiting to board the airline’s earlier flight now delayed by over two hours.

“It is a very tricky situation,” the manager told the Guardian. “When they find out who owns these drones and why they are doing it the punishment will be serious.”

More than 16 and half hours after a drone was first spotted at Gatwick it has still not be disabled.

Det Supt Juliet Parker of Sussex and Surrey olice has defended the police operation.

Speaking to the BBC, she said: “We’ve committed a lot of resources to this. Progress may seem like it is slow, but we are doing everything we can with Gatwick to resolve this with the safety of the public absolutely paramount.”

When asked whether the airport would be open soon, she said: “At the moment, until we can guarantee it’s absolutely safe, then this is the right thing to do at this time.”

When asked about the laws banning drone flights near airports, she said: “I’m sure it is something that will be reviewed with the right people around the table.”

Parker told Channel 4 News that an act of terrorism could not be ruled out.

A Labour MP has called on the government to make an urgent statement in parliament on the disruption at Gatwick.

Ian Murray said many of his Edinburgh South constituents were stuck at the airport south of London due to the problem, and called for a minister to come to the House of Commons and address the subject, outlining the sanctions for illegally flying such vehicles, which he said “could endanger the lives of hundreds of people”.

In response, Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, said it was “awful for passengers”, and highlighted legislation the government passed to deal with “those who seek to interfere with a plane with a drone”.

Leadsom said offenders face up to five years in prison and unlimited fines, but added that after the current incident “we have to do more”.

A passenger waiting to fly at Gatwick, who asked to remain anonymous, captured staff at Hamleys keeping some children entertained

With hundreds of flights delayed and thousands of people waiting, listening desperately to any little piece of information that comes through their phones, some good needs to be seen. The staff at Hamleys in the north terminal are absolute legends. They’ve been keeping the cheer going, and the young ones entertained and the spirit of the airport has been lifted.

We are blown away with how Gatwick security and the police are handling this situation. Keeping the airport shut is very frustrating, but they’ve really made it clear the importance of everyone’s safety. What comes across as a ‘tiny drone’ could easily turn into a Christmas nightmare if the police didn’t treat this as seriously as they have been. We are in no rush at this stage so just waiting for it to come to an end.”

Another woman who gave her name as Mrs Morris, from Hertfordshire, and her two sons, Sam, 10, and Daniel, 14, had just disembarked a British Airways flight that was to go to Fort Lauderdale after sitting on the plane since 10am.

The flight was delayed from 9am and we had been sitting patiently onboard with only half a glass of water being offered to us. Daniel is annoyed to not be going anywhere fast since waking up at 4am, and Sam said he’s ‘bored, bored, bored’, but still has 77% battery on his iPad so there’s been no parental pressure on reducing screen time under the circumstances. I on the other hand have been freezing from the aircon!

The kids were still optimistic when passing through security, but it’s just been announced that the flight has been cancelled. Our bags will be unloaded and we are to disembark. We’re feeling very despondent now. Fat chance of getting away for Christmas.”

A Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner flight from New York has been diverted to Doncaster Sheffield airport.

The scheduled flight was diverted from Gatwick to the South Yorkshire airport, according to the flight tracking website FlightRadar24.

The passenger Ben Phillips described the disruption as an “infuriating mess”.

Downing Street said the government was in touch with the police about the incident, although the prime minister’s official spokesman could not name which minister was taking charge of the situation.

The spokesman repeated previous police statements that there was no evidence that it was a terrorist incident, and emphasised that what happened at Gatwick was illegal.

“This behaviour is irresponsible and completely unacceptable,” they said. “We feel for passengers who face further disruption. These drones are being flown illegally. The law couldn’t be clearer. Those found endangering people could face up to five years in jail. We are in close contact with Gatwick airport as they work with police to safely resolve the situation.”

About 110,000 passengers were due to fly via Gatwick on Thursday and the vast majority would see cancellations and disruptions, according to the airport’s chief operating officer, Chris Woodroofe.

I was booked on a Ryanair flight from Gatwick to Dublin tonight.

I just got a text from Ryanair saying: “Due to Gatwick airport closure, please make your way to London Stansted where your flight will be operating.”

Gatwick is not a major hub for Ryanair – Stansted is where it operates the most flights – so evidently it has found capacity to be able to shift flights and crews to Stansted instead.

Richard Gill, the founder of the company Drone Defence, which has successfully installed the anti-drone technology SkyFence around Guernsey prison, said: “The technology exists to stop this problem.”

In an email to the Guardian, he said: “SkyFence would perform equally as well in an airport situation and would actively create a ‘no-fly zone’ where the drone would not be able to fly inside the airport’s perimeter.”

EasyJet is urging its customers not to travel to Gatwick if their flights have been cancelled.

In a statement it said:

“We advise all customers flying to and from London Gatwick today to not travel to the airport if they are on flights which have been cancelled. Customers can check the status of their flight on our flight tracker or via the app.

“We are making every effort to get people to their destination at this important time of the year. Customers on cancelled flights today will be entitled to a free of charge transfer to an alternative flight and hotel accommodation if required. We will also reimburse any reasonable expenses incurred by passengers who arrange their own comparable alternative transport.

“Whilst the situation is outside of our control we would like to apologise to passengers for the inconvenience caused by the diversions and resultant delays and cancellations.

“The safety of its passengers and crew is the airline’s highest priority.”

Here’s more from the response the aviation minister, Liz Sugg, gave to the Lords.

Sussex police are in the lead and have officers on the ground. They are doing everything they can to locate the drone and its operators. All relevant parts of government including the Department for Transport, Home Office and the Ministry of Defence, are involved in the response. And we are doing everything we can. I’m afraid it is an ongoing police investigation and I’m not able to confirm the details at this time.

We are absolutely working with manufacturers and retailers to ensure that these rules are communicated with people who purchase drones. And from November people will need to register their drone and take an online safety test.

We have also recently consulted on extending police powers and will be making announcements on the next steps on that very shortly.”

In answer to a frustrated Lord – many of the peers said they had relatives stuck at airports as a result of the disruption – Sugg said:

We are working closely with manufacturers on counter-drone technology. We are working closely with the Home Office both on the technological side of counter-drone technology but also on the physical side too.

We work carefully with airports on all their operational contingency plans, the priority is safety. Once this event is closed we will be working with airports to avoid such an incident in the future.

I am in no way complacent about this issue. We have been working incredibly hard on it all morning. We have also taken clear action this year, both introducing exclusion zones, bringing in laws to ensure that drones aren’t flown over 400ft. And we have consulted on extending police powers.

I don’t have details on the specific rehearsals for this, but I will look into that.”

“It’s chaos,” says Sofia the pilot on Instagram as she waits to fly an empty passenger jet from Stockholm’s Arlanda airport to London.

The aviation minister, Liz Sugg, has updated the House of Lords on the incident.

She said:

The disruption that these drones have caused is extensive and it’s an ongoing operation. We are in close contact with Gatwick airport as they work with the police to safely resolve the situation as quickly as possible. These drones have been flown illegally and anyone endangering an aircraft could face up to five years in jail.

We absolutely need to make sure that we introduce new laws to ensure that drones are used safely and responsibly. Earlier this year we brought in a law that makes it illegal to fly within a kilometre of an airport and above 400ft.

We are also introducing a registration system which will include a mandatory safety check before you are able to fly your drone.

I am not able to give a further comment. It does seem as though they are being used intentionally to disrupt the airport. This is an ongoing investigation.

Gatwick remains closed, the airport said in its latest statement:

Gatwick airport’s runway remains closed and all flights are currently suspended following reports of drones flying over Gatwick’s airfield last night and this morning.

There is significant disruption at Gatwick today as a result of what appears to be a deliberate attempt to disrupt flights.

We are extremely disappointed that passengers are being affected by this, especially at such an important time of year. We are prioritising the welfare of those at the airport by deploying staff into our terminals to look after people as best we can.

We are working hard with our airlines to get information to passengers but would advise anyone booked onto flights from Gatwick, or meeting arriving passengers, not to travel to the airport without checking the status of the flight with their airline or on our website first.

We apologise for the continued inconvenience, but the safety of all passengers and staff is our first priority.”

Video from the University of Dayton in Ohio shows what damage a drone can do to an aircraft wing.

The test was intended to compare a bird strike and a drone strike, using a drone similar in weight to many hobby drones and a wing selected to represent one on a commercial aircraft.

Readers have been in touch to tell us how they’ve been affected by the disruption at Gatwick.

Kevin, 34, from Price Edward Island, Canada, is stuck in Glasgow after his WestJet flight from Toronto was diverted. He said:

We were circling just off the west coast of the UK for about an hour before we diverted to Glasgow. We didn’t know if we were going to refuel but we’ve just been told we’re disembarking.

There’s no information from the airline about future plans and we’ve been told to line up at some information desks. The implication from staff is that we’d be waiting here until tomorrow and only be getting vouchers. I’ve booked my own flight from Glasgow to Luton as I’m meant to be visiting family in Bedfordshire.

Drone disabling technology has existed for several years now, so there’s no reason a robust runway protection plan hasn’t been rolled out. It’s pure complacency and only now that there’s major disruption and loss of revenue will we likely see changes made.”

A pilot, who asked to remain anonymous, said he had been waiting at Gatwick:

I’m massively disappointed for everyone who has been affected and is trying to get away for Christmas. The situation is being determined purely by the police. They are the only ones who will decide when it is safe to reopen for flights. My company has plenty of crew at this time of year and we all pull together when something like this happens. The latest rumour is that the airport will open again at 4pm.”

Liam Cumber and his wife were due to travel to Amsterdam at 11.40am when their British Airways flight was cancelled.

Cumber, 30, from Folkestone, has been one of the lucky ones after rearranging a later flight departing from Heathrow.

He said: “The cancellation notification came via the app and included information on a proposed alternate with a one-button acceptance. BA have been really productive and we can’t fault them so far as we’ve not been charged, but we don’t fly until 4.50pm now so there might be issues further down the line.

“We’ve lost five hours of our holiday but think that’s astounding considering the circumstances. Friendly and sympathetic staff at Gatwick train station are allowing everyone free travel to London to help them get to alternate airports.

“I personally think drones should be illegal except for licensed hobbyists: such as racers or photographers. No untrained person should have access to flying machinery. I can’t see how Gatwick can do anything anything better really: they cannot fly planes when small mechanical bits of plastic and metal are flying around potentially getting sucked into engines or cracking windows. Passenger safety comes before passenger convenience.”

You can continue to share your experiences and news tips by filling in the form here or via WhatsApp by adding the contact +44(0)7867825056.

A decent travel insurance policy should cover the cost of travellers having to abandon their Christmas plans because of the drone situation at Gatwick – including hotel and car hire cancellation at their destination – but as always with insurance the devil is in the detail.

The airline cannot be held liable for payouts under the EU 261 rules as this is a situation beyond their control. What the airline should offer you is either a refund for the flight only, or a promise to put you on the next available flight, or alternative routing.

But as most flights are extremely heavily booked at this time of the year, travellers may find that the next flight available is several days away.

So any claim will then have to be on your travel insurance. If you have checked in and then can’t fly, then you should be able to make a claim under the cancellation and abandonment section of your policy – but check first.

Many will rely on the travel insurance that comes with their bank account. One popular policy is Nationwide’s Flex Plus account, and its terms and conditions say that it will pay up to £5,000 if you decide to abandon the journey and return home, but only if the delay to the flight is for at least six hours on journeys of four nights or less, or 12 hours on journeys of five nights or more.

That said, it’s often a battle to make claims against insurers in these circumstances, and the very cheap policies bought on comparison sites are likely to reject claims. Nearly all policies include an “excess”, usually at least £100. That means the first £100 of the claim will not be paid.

Also, be aware that if today’s drone disruption is declared a terrorist incident – police have said there is no indication this will be the case – then the insurers will not pay out. A standard condition in insurance policies is that “cancellation on the grounds of war or terrorism isn’t covered by your policy”.

In a statement, the Association of British Insurers said: “Where illegal drone activity has grounded or diverted flights, as with all flight cancellations or disruption, you should speak to your airline or travel company first who will have certain responsibilities under the law.

“For additional travel disruption costs, such as missed hotel bookings or already paid for activities that you can no longer make, you should speak to your travel insurer as these may be covered under the terms of your travel insurance depending on the type of cover you have bought.”

Prospect, the largest union representing engineers, has added to calls for tougher regulations against drones.

Garry Graham, its deputy general secretary, said:

The drone disruption at Gatwick comes as little surprise to those in the aviation industry who have been arguing that the lack of effective regulation and enforcement is an accident waiting to happen.

Prospect, alongside other aviation unions, has been arguing at a UK and European level for a tough regulatory framework supported by a robust enforcement regime. Without things like geofencing, drone registration and training, backed up by greater publicity of the laws and adequately resourced enforcement, this kind of event will only become more common.

We pay tribute to the air traffic controllers at Gatwick who have acted speedily to ensure passenger safety. We must make sure that the Civil Aviation Authority has the resources and the legal powers to ensure that passenger safety is not put at risk in this way again.”

Much of the misery in Gatwick this morning is centred on a near 300-metre-long, slowly moving queue for the Norwegian Airlines information desk, at which a single member of staff is dealing with passengers queries.

Rebecca Dahl, 20, from Copenhagen, was about three-quarters of the way to the front. She had been waiting for three hours. Her flight was expected to depart at 6am tomorrow, but she was desperate to try to rebook to an earlier flight.

“I’m hoping that there’s another one that’s earlier because I have no place to stay and I don’t have any money,” she said. “Maybe they can hook me up with a hotel or something.”

Dahl, who is on a gap year from university, said she had been visiting a friend in London. “I missed my flight coming here too, so I’m very unlucky,” she said.

Further back, near the start of the queue, was Maria Vega, 20, who was hoping to fly with Norwegian to Las Vegas to go home for Christmas. She had been waiting in line for about 70 minutes, she said, but had moved 30-40 feet.

Her flight had been delayed for eight hours, but she was still hopeful she could depart tonight. “Patience is a virtue, that’s what my mum tells me; but I think I’m going to crack by hour five,” she said. “It’s just waiting here then having to go on an 11-hour flight.”

Vega, a student at Birkbeck in London, said she thought the queue was only moving because people in front of her were leaving it rather than waiting any longer.

But she said she had to stick it out because she was unable to check in online for her flight. “I just don’t know if I should go home, because then the trains could be delayed,” she said.

Police continue to search for drones on the runway.

A woman says she has suffered an “emotional disaster” after spending the night on a cold floor with her eight-year-old-daughter and three-year-old son, PA reports.

Yulia Hristova, who was meant to fly to Istanbul via Kiev at 3am and has been at the airport since midnight, said:

With two kids I’m in a difficult position, I’m so tired, I’m so upset, we’ve had no information.

We were standing for hours, nobody’s been on the desk. It was so cold. We were sleeping on the floor, me and my children. I lost my son during the night, and a policeman brought him back.

I was meant to be reunited with my family, my kids were so excited they didn’t sleep until 6am, they were waiting to get on the plane.

It’s been an emotional disaster. I’m so exhausted, I don’t want to stress out but it’s very worrying. What’s going to happen to us in Ukraine? What if we run out of money? Are the airline going to put us in a hotel?

I want to give up right now, it’s making me so anxious.”

Labour says the government has been too slow to address safety concerns about drones.

The shadow transport secretary, Andy McDonald, said: “Events at Gatwick airport highlight the urgent need for clear rules on the use of drones near airports. There has been growing concern over the increasing number of near misses between drones and manned aircraft and the government has been too slow to act.”

He added: “The government should fast-track the introduction of a regulatory framework to protect against the misuse of drones and ensure the safety of UK airspace. This should include a drone exclusion zone around airports.”

The transport minister, Liz Sugg, is due to give a statement about the disruption at Gatwick in an update to the House of Lords at 11.35am.

There is barely enough space for passengers to navigate trolleys piled high with luggage around the check-in desks, as passengers just arriving at the airport are told on information screens that there would be no flights until at least 11am.

Arthur Serbejs, 22, and Domante Balciuniate, 21, factory workers from Hastings, sat on the floor by a prayer room, approaching their 16th hour of waiting for a flight to Barcelona.

“We came about 6pm yesterday, and we’re going to be here until like 7pm,” Serbejs said. “At 9pm yesterday we were on the plane for four hours – they turned the lights off and everything like it was going to take off.”

“But we were still sitting there,” Balciunate added. Serbejs said he had fallen asleep while the plane sat on the apron, hoping to wake up in Spain, “and I woke up and we hadn’t moved”.

Eventually they were taken off the flight and offered a hotel in Brighton, which they declined as they live close by. They were told they would get an email with a ticket for another flat, but none came. “We stood in line for three hours for a 30-second conversation saying ‘your flight has already been transferred hours ago’, but we didn’t know about it,” Serbejs said.

“It’s crazy, it’s my worst airport experience.”

“We don’t even expect to go to Barcelona any more,” Balciunate said. “Maybe there’s another drone up there – but we have hope. There’s a prayer room over there, we were thinking about going.”

PA has also been talking to some of the thousands of passengers disrupted by the incident.

Chris Lister, from Somerset, who owns an online business, was travelling back from Kiev with his wife, Freya.

He was due to land at Gatwick at 9.45pm on Wednesday but ended up trapped on the plane on the tarmac at Birmingham airport until 6am.

“There were quite a few babies and kids onboard, I think they were struggling more than we were and one woman had run out milk,” he said. After starting his journey in Bangkok on Tuesday he was finally let off the plane at 6am, he said.
Joseph Ouechen, a photographer from Morocco, was due to fly into Gatwick on Wednesday night but had his flight diverted to Paris.

After arriving at Charles de Gaulle airport at midnight, passengers with visas for the Schengen area were taken to a hotel but those without – “about 20%” – were left in the airport to fend for themselves, he said.

“There were families with babies who couldn’t get to their suitcases for their milk and stuff,” he said. “We were asking if [airport staff] could help but they said they couldn’t do anything.”

Firefighters eventually crossed the border through passport control with blankets and water at 3.30am, he said. “It’s surreal. I was flying to the UK and now there are firemen bringing me water and blankets.”

Mamosta Abdulla said he was on an Iraq-bound flight on Wednesday evening before getting stuck on the tarmac for four hours. He will miss his father’s memorial service, he said.

“We got here at 6pm and should have flown at 9.10pm, but we were stuck four hours on the plane with a crying baby, the child was disabled and everyone was sweating because it was so hot in there,” he said.

Passengers were given a voucher for food, he said, but were left to sleep “in a freezing place on uncomfortable chairs”.

“We are in Iraq with bombs going off nearby and the plane still lands. But here some drones have shut down the airport.”

Sussex police confirmed there are no indications to suggest the drone incident is terror related.

Supt Justin Burtenshaw, Gatwick Airport policing commander, is in charge of trying catch the drone operator.

Speaking to BBC News, he said: “We are still getting sightings of the drone in and around the airfield. I have got over 20 units from Surrey and Sussex and from the airport searching for the drone operator. We are exploring other options to try and bring this situation to a close.”

He said the police believe operator is deliberately trying to disrupt the airport, but there has been no intelligence that this is a terrorist incident.

Burtenshaw, a former head of armed policing at Sussex and Surrey, added:

“Each time we believe we get close to the operator the drone disappears when we look to reopen the airfield the drone reappears, so I’m absolutely convinced it is a deliberate act to disrupt Gatwick airport.

There has been no intelligence that this is going to happen. This is just a random act that has happened overnight.

“I’m convinced we will [capture the operator]. It is a painstaking thing. The bigger the drone the further the reach of the operator so it is a difficult and challenging thing to locate them. But I’ve got teams and investigators looking at how we do that and I’m confident we will.

More than 13 hours after a drone was first spotted over Gatwick the police are still trying to bring it down.

Transport minister Baroness Sugg “The police are working to bring the drone down, and I am confident that they will do so.”

She added: “Our priority is to get that airport open as safely as possible so that people can fly off on their Christmas breaks, or people who are coming in to visit friends and family.”

Various techniques are available for combatting drones, including eagles:

And a signal jamming Sky Fence that has been successfully deployed around Guernsey prison.

LNER is offering those whose flights have been cancelled between Edinburgh and Gatwick free rail travel.

Suzanne Donnelly, Commercial Director at LNER, said: “We know how important it is to get to where you’re going and are delighted that we are able to step in and help out.”

And EasyJet is offering free flight transfers.

The Guardian’s Damien Gayle has been dispatched to Gatwick to monitor the chaos. Here’s the first of his updates:

If you’ve been affected by the events at Gatwick and would like to share eyewitness accounts or news tips, anonymously if you prefer, with our journalists then please do so via the form here. The form is encrypted and your responses are only seen by the Guardian. You can also contact the Guardian via WhatsApp by adding the contact +44(0)7867825056.

Tory MP Henry Smith MP, whose Crawley constituency borders Gatwick, said drone activity at the airport “appears to a be deliberate criminal act”. He is calling for tougher sentences against illegal drone operators. “The sentence is now 5 years in prison but further efforts are clearly required,” he tweeted.

Andri Kyprianou, from Cyprus, who had been visiting London, said she saw a pregnant woman sleeping on the floor and passengers with infants spending the night in the “freezing” South Terminal, PA reports.

She said she got to the airport at 12.30am for a 3am flight to Cyprus via Kiev, only to find it had been cancelled, and that the next connection in Kiev is on Sunday.

She said:

“I haven’t slept since yesterday morning, we are very tired. It’s freezing, we are cold, having to wear all of these coats for extra blankets.

“There were pregnant women, one of them was sleeping on the floor. There were people with small babies in here overnight, we saw disabled people on chairs.

“There were young children sleeping on the floor.”

She said she will have to spend a night in Kiev, but she had been told by Ukrainian Airlines that there may be a chance of an alternative connection through Tel Aviv.

Here’s the grim looking arrivals board at Gatwick, courtesy of PA.

Gatwick is now expected to be closed until at least 12pm, according to Airlive citing the European aviation agency Eurocontrol.

The government has condemned the operators of the drones as acting “incredibly irresponsibly”.

Aviation minister Baroness Sugg said:

“These drones have been flown illegally and the operators, who have acted incredibly irresponsibly, could face up to five years in jail.

“We are in close contact with Gatwick Airport as they work with police to safely resolve the situation as quickly as possible.”

Pilots said the Gatwick incident highlights the need for tougher laws against drones.

Dr Rob Hunter, head of flight safety at the British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA), said:

“The public needs to understand that drones are not just toys and could have catastrophic consequences if they collide with an aircraft.

We know a lot of drones will be under people’s Christmas trees and we implore them to ensure they’re aware of the rules and fly their drones in a safe and sensible manner.”

“These drone sightings at Gatwick are further evidence that tougher laws and enforcement are required to keep drones clear of manned flights.

“That’s why we need the registration and education process in force sooner rather than later, so people flouting the law can be caught and prosecuted.

“At the same time, BALPA is also calling for the government to consider toughening the law to create a larger no-fly zone around airports.

“We need to ensure people flying drones take responsibility for their actions and do so responsibly with the knowledge that if they endanger an aircraft they could face jail.”

Gatwick is to remain closed until at least 11am according Airlive.

A Gatwick spokesman said 110,000 passengers were due to either take off or land at the airport on 760 flights on Thursday.

He was unable to state how many of these passengers had already been affected but the first wave of flights is normally the busiest time of the day.

Around 10,000 passengers were affected on Wednesday night after the runway was closed at 9.03pm.

Welcome to live coverage of the continuing travel disruption at Gatwick airport after drones over the runway caused flights to be suspended.

Chris Woodroofe, the airport’s chief operating officer, apologised to passengers and said the drones could not be shot down because of the risk of stray bullets causing harm.

Police from two forces have been scouring the perimeter to try to catch the operators of the drones which were first spotted at 9pm on Wednesday night.

Speaking to Sky News on Thursday morning Woodroofe said: “As I stand here, there is a drone on my airfield as we speak.”

Gatwick is advising passengers not to travel to the airport without checking with their airline first.