A BRADFORD drone expert has raised questions over a high-profile incident which caused major disruption for thousands of airline passengers.

Gatwick Airport was repeatedly forced to close between December 19 and 21, 2018, due to reported drone sightings near the runway.

The incident caused chaos for travellers, affecting more than 1,000 flights and around 140,000 passengers.

Nobody has ever been prosecuted for it.

Sussex Police said a criminal investigation concluded that "at least two drones were behind the attack at Gatwick" - but Bradford drone expert Ian Hudson said he had doubts over the situation.

He made the Telegraph & Argus aware of the results of a recent Freedom of Information (FOI) request which showed that crews from the National Police Air Service (NPAS) - which is delivered by West Yorkshire Police and was deployed to Gatwick to search for the reported drones - "had no sightings of a drone at or near Gatwick Airport" between December 19 and 31, 2018.

Mr Hudson, who runs popular drone-related account @UAVHive on the social media site X, said the FOI results pointed towards "the continued unravelling of the alleged Gatwick drone incident". 

He is not the first commentator to question the reported drone sightings.

Mr Hudson said the drone industry had suffered reputational damage as a result of Sussex Police's "narrative".

In response, a Sussex Police spokesperson said: "A criminal investigation, supported by a range of national experts, concluded that at least two drones were behind the attack at Gatwick.

"The police investigation centred on 129 separate sightings of drone activity, 109 of these from credible witnesses used to working in a complex airport environment including a pilot, airport workers and airport police."

A spokesperson for NPAS said: "Between December 19 and 23, 2018, NPAS was tasked by Sussex Police to search an area near Gatwick Airport following reports of drone activity. On occasion, the searches were limited as the crews were diverted to other high priority taskings.

"It is important to note that small drones can be almost impossible to see from the air and our crews are tasked to look for those operating the drones from open land. 

"NPAS crews did not sight any suspected drone operators, or drones, on the occasions they flew."

At the time, the Civil Aviation Authority said it considered the event to be an "extraordinary circumstance".