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Flights from one of the UK's busiest airports were disrupted this morning after a hot air balloon drifted into a flightpath close to Gatwick.
A spokesman for the West Sussex airport said five departing flights were suspended between 8.45am and 9.15am after the balloon was spotted near the town of Horsham, which is about 12 miles from Gatwick.
"There was a temporary suspension of departing flights this morning," he said. "As a result of a hot air balloon drifting over the Horsham area, we had to suspend a total of five flights. It was a problem for about half an hour."
He said the decision to suspend the flights had been taken on safety grounds, adding: "There's a flight path for departing flights that goes quite close to Horsham."
The airport is now back to normal, he went on, and the authorities are trying to establish where the balloon had come from and what happened.
Gatwick, which is the UK's second busiest airport, serves 200 overseas destinations and saw 34 million passengers pass through its doors last year.
It was not the only balloon-related incident of the morning. Ten people escaped without injury after the hot air balloon they were travelling in over North Yorkshire crashed into a power line near West Haddlesey, Selby, shortly before 8.50am. "No one is injured but the balloon is still on the power line and the electricity company has been called out," said a spokesman for North Yorkshire police.
He added that while the cause of the crash was unknown, high winds could have been a factor.


Gatwick flights disrupted by hot air balloon | World news | guardian.co.uk

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