Police apologise to couple arrested over Gatwick drone chaos

Sussex Police has apologised to a couple arrested following chaos caused by drones at Gatwick Airport.

Chief constable Giles York told the Today Programme he was "convinced the grounds for arrest were well-founded" at the time.

Paul Gait and Elaine Kirk, who were arrested and held for 36 hours before being released without charge, said they felt “violated” by the experience.

York told the BBC: “"I'm really sorry for what [Mr Gait] has experienced and the feeling of violation around it.

"[But] what might have been worse as an experience for him would have been to be released under investigation still.

"We were able to exhaust all our lines of inquiry on that first instance and were able to release him from police custody saying he was no longer a suspect."

Britain’s second largest airport ground to a halt in the run up to Christmas following reports of drones flying near the runway.

Nearly 3m people were due to pass through the airport over the festive period, according to Stephen King, head of airline relations at Gatwick, in what was due to be the “busiest Christmas in the airport’s history”.