Gatwick Airport drone theories – who is behind the drone disruption that caused Christmas travel chaos?

But who is behind the operation? Here is what we know so far…

Who is behind the drone disruption that caused Christmas travel chaos?

The person or persons behind the disruption have so far evaded capture along with disrupting 1,000 flights, bringing misery to 200,000 passengers.

On Saturday, cops found a damaged drone near the airport perimeter and forensics are trying to determine who was operating it.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling admitted authorities so far have no idea about the motive.

He said: There's no sense of motive – there's no suggestion that this is a terrorist act. It's clearly someone who wants to disrupt Gatwick Airport and there's an intense police operation."

Some of the theories suggested include:

Lone wolf hacker

Professional drone pilot Carys Kaiser said the drones are not the work of an amateur doing it for fun.

She told Mail Online: "It is definitely something that is more organised in some capacity because obviously the drones that I fly and the drones that most people fly in the UK have this geo-fencing and we can't get them to take off that close to an airport."

Meanwhile ex-army captain Richard Gill said a genius educated to PhD level may be responsible.

Mr Gill told The Sun: “He or she is just causing hell because they can and they want to test their limits.

"It’s the thrill of getting away with it. To have evaded police radar for so long suggests some serious capability."

Environmental activists

Cops are considering the prospect of environmental activism causing the disruption.

Airport protests in the UK have tended to centre around Heathrow with attacks on the proposed third runway, but other airports are not immune from activism.

Greenpeace denied involvement in the attacks: "The disruption at Gatwick Airport is not us. When we do something we always take responsibility for our actions."

Russia or another state sponsor

Russia has engaged in a major campaign of cyber-sabotage, election meddling and assassination in recent years – this includes the attempted murder of ex-spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.

The scale of Russian hacking emerged in October after attempts to use hacking to target foreign rivals were foiled.

Sir Gerald Howarth, David Cameron's international security minister from 2010 to 2012, was asked if Russia could be behind the drone attacks.

He told TalkRadio: "Russia, of course, has engaged in the most horrendous activity in Salisbury but that didn’t involve modern technology.

"But yes, I’m afraid to say that there is a risk that this could be in some way, if not state sponsored, certainly sponsored by a terrorist group."

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