Video shows the drone that shut down a major British airport for more than 32 hours

MailOnline/Business Insider

An annotated screenshot of a video showing a drone flying near Gatwick airport.

• Video footage shows one of the drones that resulted in the closure Gatwick Airport, near London, for more than 32 hours.
• More than 120,000 people had their travel disrupted when Gatwick Airport closed its runway, and more delays and cancellations are to come.
• Police have still not found the drones or the operator, but the airport said additional measures are in place in case drones reappear.

A video shows one of the drones that resulted in the closure of one of the UK's largest airports for more than 32 hours, leaving more than 120,000 people affected by canceled, delayed, and diverted flights.

Gatwick airport, which serves London, was closed at 9 p.m. on Wednesday when airport staff saw drones over the runway. The closure of the runway left people sleeping on grounded planes on the terminal floor.

The MailOnline news website published footage of one of the drones hovering over Gatwick during the shutdown:

The Daily Mail, the sister newspaper to MailOnline, published an image of the drone over the runway on Friday's front page.

The airport has now opened again, and Gatwick received its first international flight landing at the airport at 6 a.m. on Friday, 32 hours after the runway was closed at 9 p.m. on Wednesday.

Gatwick said that at times two separate drones had been seen, but most of the disruption seemed to come from a single one, shown in the footage.

Police have not yet found the drones or their operator. Chris Woodroofe, Gatwick's chief operating officer, told the BBC that the airport has put in additional measures to protect the airport if a drone appears. He did not say what the measures are.

Police have appealed to the public for information. They have said little about who could be behind it, but have suggested that an environmental protester is "a possibility."

GLYN KIRK/AFP/Getty Images

Passengers wait at the North Terminal at London's Gatwick Airport on Thursday.

110,000 people were booked on flights on Thursday, while 10,000 passengers were also affected on Wednesday night.

Read More: Video shows the damage a drone can do to a plane, as British airport shuts down for more than 24 hours over rogue drones on the runway

Woodroofe told the BBC that he could not comment on whether the police would try to shoot down a drone if it reappeared.

He said on Thursday that police were refusing to try and shoot at the drones for fear that a stray bullet could hit somebody.

GLYN KIRK/AFP/Getty Images

An information board shows scheduled flights arrivals cancelled and diverted at London Gatwick Airport after drones were seen over the runway.

Sussex Police Assistant Chief Constable Steve Barry told the BBC that the police are still investigating and "made a lot of progress overnight."

700 flights are expected to depart from Gatwick, the UK's second-largest airport, on Friday, Woodroofe said.

But airlines warned that they expect disruption to continue and advised passengers to check their websites. Woodroofe also said that the departure of those flights depends on whether there are any more sightings of the drone.

Read More: Travelers had to sleep on floors and grounded planes for hours after rogue drones shut down major London airport just before Christmas

Woodroofe called the disruption "unprecedented" and said governments and tech companies needed to work on solutions in case this happens again in any airport.

The UK's Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, told BBC Breakfast on Friday: "This kind of incident is unprecedented anywhere in the world, the disruption of an airport in this way."

He said he will be meeting with other UK airports "quickly" about ensuring that this does not happen again and that other airports will be patrolled on Friday to make sure there are no similar incidents.