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

People slept on grounded planes and on airport floors after Londons Gatwick Airport was forced closed by rogue drones on the runway.
The runway has been closed for more than 14 hours, affecting at least 10,000 people last night alone.
One passenger shared a photo of people sleeping on his grounded plane, where he said there were bodies sleeping on every seat and across the floors."
Another woman said she and her children had to sleep on the floor of the terminal overnight.

People slept on a grounded planes terminal floors after a major British airport was forced closed because of someone flying drones over the runway.

More than 10,000 people were affected by the closure of one of Gatwick Airport, a major airport serving London, on Wednesday night, with 2,000 people unable to depart and 2,000 people on flights in other airports bound for Gatwick that did not take off.

An additional 6,000 people were on flights that had to divert to other airports. The airport has not given figures for how many people will be affected as the airport remains closed on Thursday morning.

Christopher Lister, who was flying to Gatwick Airport from Kiev, said on Twitter that his flight was diverted to another UK airport where passengers were then left on the plane and unable to get off.

He said that people resorted to sleeping on the plane: "Bodies sleeping on every seat and across the floors."

Lister told Business Insider that his flight waited at Birmingham airport for around four hours with the intention of flying back to Gatwick, but further drone sightings meant that this wasn't possible. He said that they were able to leave the airport at around 5.30 a.m., around six hours after they first landed.

He said that there were children and women feeding their babies on the flight.

The Guardian newspaper also spoke to passengers who slept on a plane that waited for four hours before eventually not taking off.

"At 9 p.m. yesterday we were on the plane for four hours they turned the lights off and everything like it was going to take off," the passenger told The Guardian. "But we were still sitting there."

Passengers were offered hotels overnight, Chris Woodroffe, the airport's chief operating officer, said on the BBC's "Today" program. But many passengers slept on the terminal floor and in chairs on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Under EU law, it is the airline's responsibility to offer passengers accommodation if flights are delayed overnight. In the case of canceled flights, passengers are unlikely to get compensation if the flight is canceled for reasons that are outside the airline's control, but an airline legally has to help passengers with accommodation if they are waiting overnight for a replacement flight.

Yulia Hristova, who was supposed to fly to Istanbul via Kiev, spent the night in the airport with her two children and told the Press Association she slept on the floor. "We were sleeping on the floor, me and my children. I lost my son during the night, and a policeman brought him back," she said.

"Its been an emotional disaster. Im so exhausted, I dont want to stress out but its very worrying. Whats going to happen to us in Ukraine? What if we run out of money? Are the airline going to put us in a hotel?"

Andri Kyprianou, from Cyprus, who was on a visit to London, said that a pregnant woman was sleeping on the floor, the BBC reported.

"There were pregnant women, one of them was sleeping on the floor," she said.

"There were people with small babies in here overnight, we saw disabled people on chairs. There were young children sleeping on the floor."

Woodroffe apologized to passengers and said that the airport was working with airlines to build a schedule for redirected flights and to inform passengers.

Gatwick said in a statement: "We apologize to any affected passengers for this inconvenience but the safety of our passengers and all staff is our number one priority."

Chris Woodroffe, the airport's chief operating officer, told the BBC's "Today" program that the knock-on effects would continue for days even after the airport reopens.

The airport is warning passengers not to travel to the airport before checking the status of their flight with their airline, while police are hunting the drone operator, who could face a five-year jail sentence.

Police say it is a "deliberate act" but that there are no indications that the action is terror-related.

Gatwick is the second-largest airport in the UK , with 56 airlines operating regularly and around 45 million passengers a year. The airport said that it is expecting 2.9 million passengers over the festive period.

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

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