Gatwick Airport's South Terminal reopens after 'suspected prohibited item' found

Passengers at Gatwick airport, where flights have been cancelled and delayed after a 'suspected prohibited item' was found in luggage Credit: PA

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."

The south terminal at Gatwick airport near Crawley, West Sussex Credit: PA

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.

Police said: "Officers from the EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) team made the package safe, and the airport has been handed back to its operator.

"Two people who were detained while enquiries were ongoing have subsequently been allowed to continue their journeys.

"There will remain an increased police presence in the area to assist with passengers accessing the South Terminal for onward travel.

"Safety of the public, staff and other airport users has been our priority throughout the operation, and we thank them for their patience while the incident was ongoing."

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.

Passengers at Gatwick airport near Crawley, West Sussex Credit: PA

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.

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.

  • Passenger Deborah Cohen was at Gatwick earlier and described what the situation was like when she arrived

Deborah Cohen at Gatwick, said: "It was chaos when I got here but people were still moving through security. What they told me at the time, is that it was down to two lanes, but there were quite a few armed police around.

"Then as I was about to go through the security, itself, the whole terminal was evacuated, guards came over and were turfing everybody out.

"People were everywhere, queuing up, there was old people sitting on the floor, no one is really sure what is happening.

"All I’ve been told is there was a suspicious package and they’ve brought in specialists to deal with it."

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.

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