DroneLedger

Airport disruption

Gatwick flight cancellations after drone reports

Gatwick Airport · 19 Dec 2018 · event date · approximate location

The UK government records widespread flight cancellations following reported drone sightings near the runway. [1][2]

Drone presence is reported. The consequences are established. The operator is not established.

Drone presenceReported[2]
ImpactConfirmed[1][2]
AttributionNot established

DroneLedger editorial team, publisher and editor responsible for this project.

AI-assisted editorial source review. This label records the editorial workflow, not a personal check of every source or sentence. Method and corrections

2 source families · a count of sources is not a verification score

AI-assisted editorial source review · 12 Oct 2026 · Dossier updated 12 Oct 2026

You are viewing revision 1 as published on 12 Oct 2026. The dossier text, evidence states, claims and sources of this revision are fixed; catalogue context such as cost estimates is not shown here. View the current version

What do we know now?

The UK government records widespread flight cancellations following reported drone sightings near the runway.

Facts at a glance
Drone type
  • No named drone type is recorded in this dossier.
Who reported what
Source families
  • 2 source families are recorded; republication is not independent confirmation

Further details are not known from the cited sources.

Timeline

Three clocks, one reading line

Shared calendar-day axis, from left to right. Bars mark days or reporting windows, not durations. Publication and revision clocks are not event clocks. Missing clocks remain unknown; the table gives all available precision and source links. The plot follows recorded calendar dates; time zones may differ. It establishes neither within-day order nor causality.

Three clocks, one reading line
TrackRecorded date / time
1 · Event
  • · Calendar day; time unknown
2 · Source publication
3 · Dossier revisions

What remains uncertain?

  • Was a drone established? A published investigation or identification could resolve this.
  • Who operated it, and why? An attributed investigation finding is missing.
Check the evidence

Source genealogy

Grouped by recorded original statement, not by publisher. Unmapped sources have unknown dependency; linked statements may also share an earlier origin. This is not an independence score.

  1. Unknown dependency
    • UK Home Office · consultation response [1]
    • Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner · chief constable account [2]
Show source graph

Left: publishers; right: recorded original statement. Converging lines show shared origin, not publication order. Dashed nodes have unknown dependency.

Read with a source omitted

Reading aid: switch off a source or family to inspect the remaining visible support below. Evidence status is not recalculated.

No source-indexed claims recorded. No support can be inferred from the number of sources.

What we know

Hundreds of flights were cancelled between 19 and 21 December 2018.

The chief constable described illegal drone incursions and flight disruption. The cited minutes do not provide technical aircraft identification.

Data
No structured detail recorded
Hit / damaged · Fell near · Intercepted (claimed) · Human consequences · Effects

What remains unknown

The cited source does not establish aircraft type, operator or intent.

Not established in the cited sources.

How the story changed

  1. The period of cancellations following reported sightings began. [1]

  2. Last day of the disruption period described in the government response. [1]

  3. Official meeting minutes recorded that police had reported no further realistic lines of enquiry at that time. [2]

Original sources (2)

2 source families · a count of sources is not a verification score

1UK Home Office · consultation response09 Aug 2021 · source family: Uk home office2Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner · chief constable account18 Oct 2019 · source family: Sussex police

Editorial changes

  1. Revision 1 · 12 Oct 2026Initial dossier imported after source review.

Cite this dossier

Permanent page · Revision 1

Chicago

DroneLedger editorial team. “Gatwick flight cancellations after drone reports.” Dossier gatwick-2018-12-19, revision 1, updated 12 Oct 2026. https://droneincidents.com/incident/gatwick-2018-12-19/v1/

APA

DroneLedger editorial team. (12 Oct 2026). Gatwick flight cancellations after drone reports (Dossier gatwick-2018-12-19, revision 1). https://droneincidents.com/incident/gatwick-2018-12-19/v1/

Cite the revision you used: later revisions may change evidence states.

Cite this version

Maker
DroneLedger editorial team
ID
gatwick-2018-12-19
Revision or edition
1
Release
20261109T002636372024-fb099f
Publication date
12 Oct 2026
Accessed
09 Nov 2026
Permanent URL
https://droneincidents.com/incident/gatwick-2018-12-19/v1/
Hashed file
JSON · SHA-256 22544ce637c437369b8ccd26fb11c8bee7444c1ae730ad1137788605e27a2a56

Dataset DOI for this exact version: Not yet in a DOI snapshot · DOI binding manifest

Dataset DOI (series, not this revision): 10.5281/zenodo.23345422

DroneLedger editorial team. Gatwick flight cancellations after drone reports. ID gatwick-2018-12-19; revision or edition 1; release 20261109T002636372024-fb099f; published 12 Oct 2026. https://droneincidents.com/incident/gatwick-2018-12-19/v1/ Accessed 09 Nov 2026. SHA-256 22544ce637c437369b8ccd26fb11c8bee7444c1ae730ad1137788605e27a2a56 (https://droneincidents.com/data/citations/incident/gatwick-2018-12-19/r1/22544ce637c437369b8ccd26fb11c8bee7444c1ae730ad1137788605e27a2a56/data.json). Not yet in a DOI snapshot.

Citation uses the English reference edition. Access date is the UTC date when this page was built; change it to your consultation date when reusing the citation.

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