UPDATE: 18:34 GMT – The departure ban has been lifted and flights are beginning to depart once again. Thousands remain delayed.
Departures from London Heathrow Airpot are currently suspended while authorities investigate a drone sighting in the area.
A Heathrow spokeswoman told the BBC:
We are currently responding to a drone sighting at Heathrow and are working closely with the Met police to prevent any threat to operational safety.
As a precautionary measure, we have stopped departures while we investigate. We apologise to passengers for any inconvenience this may cause.
Flights are still being permitted to land at this time.
This is a breaking story. I’ll update it as the situation develops.
image: Warren Rohner / Wikimedia Commons
On a flight from FCO to LHR. We’re grounded at FCO but the pilot just said all is clear at 19:25. We took extra gas on the plane as they expect the landing queue to be very busy at Heathrow. Only bad thing is we aren’t eligible for EU 261.
Thanks for the update.
Oh boy, imagine the immigration queues.