Furious passengers rage as Gatwick runway finally reopens

Irate passengers caught up in Gatwick crisis today demanded to know why it ran into three days after the police needed the Army to deploy battlefield weapons used to knock ISIS drones out of the sky. 

The jet carrying children to Lapland was the first plane to take-off at around 6.30am this morning - and 700 more flights carrying more than 120,000 people are scheduled today - the busiest day of the Christmas getaway.

The drone that terrorised the airport since 9pm on Wednesday vanished after the Army was sent in with a high-tech tracking system, a 'kill-jammer' that cuts a drone's communications and 'piggybacks' its controls as well as a 'drone dome' weapon that shoots them out of the sky with a laser.

The arsenal of weapons was used by the Army to liberate Mosul in Iraq and neutralise ISIS drones but passengers trapped at Gatwick are furious the weapons were not brought in earlier.

They have also blasted the police, who appeared utterly bewildered about how to stop the drone and refused to shoot it down despite having snipers dotted along the runway all day yesterday.  

The airport has been bombarded with criticism on social media, including from a passenger named Mike, whose Christmas break has been wrecked.

He said: 'It is an utter shambles that one person with effectively a big toy can close an airport the size of #gatwick for so long. A national embarrassment causing misery to thousands, including me and my family. How can the relevant authorities not be able to deal with this?' 

Jack Taylor tweeting: 'No flights for 34 hours at Gatwick why the f*** didn’t they just shoot it down? I've seen drones come down off someone throwing a toilet roll at it, why did it take so long have i missed something??' 

Aimee Trowell tweeted: 'How embarrassing that the police and Gatwick airport have let this go on so long! How can a couple of idiots with drones cause so much chaos #LondonGatwick #dronesgatwick'.





MailOnline