Gatwick drone pair 'no longer suspects'
LONDON 23 Dec (ANA) - A man and woman arrested in connection with drone sightings that grounded flights at Gatwick Airport have been released without charge.
The 47-year-old man and 54-year-old woman, from Crawley, West Sussex, were arrested on Friday night on suspicion of "the criminal use of drones".
Sussex Police said the pair were no longer suspects.
A damaged drone found close to the airport on Saturday was being forensically examined, the force added.
Det Ch Supt Jason Tingley said it was "a working assumption" the device could be connected to their investigation, but officers were keeping "an open mind".
"We are also going through many reports of sightings of drone activity over the last few days," he said.
"We are meticulously going through that information to see if that produces any other further lines of inquiry, and also where we may focus our efforts in terms of house-to-house inquiries, CCTV footage, and any other information that will help us work through this investigation."
He added there was "always a possibility that there may not have been any genuine drone activity in the first place", but they were working on a range of information from members of the public, police officers and staff working at Gatwick who had reported otherwise.
Flights were suspended for more than 36 hours when a device was first spotted close to the runway on Wednesday night.
Det Ch Supt Tingley said the arrested man and woman had "fully co-operated" with inquiries after information was received from a member of the public.
Talking about the disclosure of their personal details in the press, he said he was satisfied their arrest was lawful, and stressed that officers would never reveal such information.
He added: "We would not have chosen in any event to provide that information to anyone... and one might say that's probably hindered us in terms of how quickly we've been able to get to a resolution in terms of them being released from custody."(ANA)

FA/ANA/23 December 2018---------