Gatwick airport terminal to reopen after security alert

Gatwick’s south terminal is reopening after a security alert was cleared by police, the airport said.

The building was closed to new passengers for more than four hours on Friday as Sussex Police deployed its bomb disposal unit because of “the discovery of a suspected prohibited item in luggage”.

The force said it was called to what is the UK’s second busiest airport at 8.20am.

Passengers who had not cleared security were required to evacuate at around 10.30am.

The airport released a statement at 2.44pm which said: “The earlier security alert has now been resolved and cleared by police.

“The south terminal is reopening to staff and will be open to passengers shortly.”

It added: “There are some delays and cancellations. Passengers should contact their airline for any updates on flights.”

Sussex Police said in a statement that an explosive ordnance disposal team was deployed to the airport “as a precaution” and a security cordon was put in place.

Around 100,000 passengers were set to travel through the airport on Friday.

A number of flights to and from the south terminal were cancelled, including at least 16 departures and 13 arrivals by British Airways.

Other flights continued to depart, but were only carrying passengers who had passed through security before the evacuation.

A British Airways flight to Orlando in the US departed one hour and 49 minutes late.

Spanish carrier Vueling ordered an inbound flight from Barcelona and one from Seville to turn around and return to their starting airports.

A Norwegian flight to Bergen departed two hours and seven minutes late.

The north terminal was unaffected.

Nejadeen Braham, 35, who works as a nurse on the Isle of Man, was due to fly to her homeland of Jamaica to collect her children.

Speaking to the PA news agency outside the south terminal, she said: “I couldn’t get in the airport. I saw everybody coming (out) from one direction.

“I was supposed to go inside, drop my bags and go through security.

“When I got here I saw everybody coming down.

“There were no proper updates.

“I m very frustrated.”

British Airways said in a statement it was “in contact with affected customers and giving them updates as and when we can”.

It went on: “We’re also providing them with options including flight re-bookings and hotel accommodation where necessary.

“We ask customers to check ba.com for the latest flight information before coming to the airport.”

Train services at Gatwick were suspended as the railway station is attached to the south terminal, but are set to resume.

Aviation analytics website Cirium said 316 flights were scheduled to depart from the airport on Friday, with a total of more than 60,600 seats.

A further 318 flights were scheduled to arrive, with more than 61,400 seats.

As of now, only 70% of flights had departed within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.