A drone shut England's second largest airport 30 hours earlier this week. Police are hunting the people who operated the drone. The police believe these people are "eco-warriors". These are activists who take part protests or take action to raise awareness environmental problems. The drone prevented flights leaving the UK's Gatwick Airport Wednesday and Thursday. The airport was forced to close its runway. Over 120,000 travellers have been affected. Many them were trying to fly home Christmas. Instead, they had to sleep on the airport floor or try to find flights from other airports. Some passengers spent nine hours sitting on a plane the boarding gate.
The British government is now talking the actions it can take if other people use drones to cause chaos. They are worried people could use drones to attack airports, nuclear power stations and other important buildings. Police said they were "a game cat and mouse" the drone. They said: "Each time we believe we got close to the operator, the drone disappears; when we look to reopen the airfield, the drone reappears again." This happened many times. Hundreds police officers and the British Army helped to find the drone's operator, but couldn't. The police are worried a drone could cause a plane to crash. The operator the drone could face to five years jail.
