Why didn’t the police shoot down the drones at Gatwick Airport and why are they hard to stop?
GATWICK Airport was thrown into chaos just days before Christmas after drones were spotted flying through the airspace.
But many members of the public have asked why the devices were simply not just shot down.
But it's unfortunately not as simple as that. Here, we explain why.
What is happening at Gatwick?
Gatwick Airport had to be closed down after drones were seen flying through the airspace on December 20.
The Christmas getaway hell saw 1,000 flights cancelled or diverted - affecting 140,000 passengers - since Wednesday night.
Two people have since been arrested - a man aged 47 and a woman aged 54 - on suspicion of disrupting services of civil aviation aerodrome to endanger or likely to endanger safety of operations or persons.
Elite Army troops and MI5 were called in to help to hunt the drone operator, saying that shooting the drones down was a "tactical option".
The saboteur had been playing cat-and-mouse with authorities after flying drones over the runway more than 50 times since Wednesday night.
Experts say the skilled drone operator - feared to be a lone-wolf green protester - could be controlling the industrial scale craft from up to five miles away.
The saboteur’s aim is to cripple the busy air hub - which recently lodged a bid to build a second runway.
Why hasn’t the drone been shot down yet?
The most obvious solution to end the drama would be to shoot down the drones using a rifle or a shotgun.
However, this solution is not as simple as it seems as a rifle bullet fired upwards can travel a significant distance if it doesn't hit its target.
To use a rifle safely, the police would ideally have to cordon off a 2.5mile stretch of West Sussex to ensure public safety.
The website claims that a shotgun might be a better option than a rifle for bringing down the drone as the danger zone for a shotgun’s pellet is about 390ft, according to the Ministry of Defence.
What other reasons are there?
If the drone was to be shot down just outside Gatwick’s airfield, you would need permission to do this from the landowner where it might fall, and of any land that bullets might pass over.
There is also no guarantee that once shot, the drones will land on the same exact spot.
A partial hit could send the drones flying off to crash on someone's house or could cause it to shatter mid-air scattering debris around on the airfield.
This would be a major hazard if the pieces were to be sucked into a jet engine.