Flights into Jersey were cancelled or diverted for a second night in a row after unauthorised drones were flown near the island's airport, leaving passengers stranded and the island's government promising that those responsible will face the law.

At 20:05 on Saturday, Jersey Airport said it was "experiencing disruption.... affecting inbound flights as a result of further drone activity in the vicinity of the airfield". The airport later said that four flights had not been able to land as scheduled because of "the illegal and persistent drone activity", and that airlines were making alternative travel arrangements directly with passengers.

States of Jersey Police are investigating and have appealed for information. Inspector Rob McCallum said it was believed that "two or three" drones had entered the restricted airspace, and that the activity was not thought to be linked to terrorism.

The flights affected

Metro reported that a British Airways flight, BA1356 from Heathrow, was forced to return to London mid-air on Saturday evening, according to the flight tracking site Flightradar24. An ASL Airlines flight from Funchal in Portugal was diverted to Paris, and a Loganair flight from Southampton to Jersey was cancelled.

Passengers already inside the terminal described a frustrating evening. Pacific Basirwe was waiting for his wife and young son to fly in from Heathrow when he learned their flight had been cancelled. "It's annoying, this should be regulated, and the people doing those things should be prosecuted," he said. "It's been two days in a row now… If there is no further action, they will keep doing it, which is not good."

The disruption follows a similar night on Friday, when flights were also diverted after drone sightings near the airfield. Jersey Airport said passengers due to fly should check with their airline on the status of their flight.

Political and policing response

Jersey's Chief Minister, Senator Lyndon Farnham, said operating a drone near an airport was "not a prank or a harmless hobby". "To those responsible, the message is clear: if you are identified, you should expect to face the full consequences of the law," he said.

He added that the government and its operational partners were treating the incidents with "the utmost seriousness", that police investigations were continuing, and that every available avenue was being pursued to identify those responsible. Jersey is also working with UK authorities and specialist agencies to explore additional operational support, enhanced detection capability and counter-drone technology.

"Our airport is a vital lifeline for the island," Farnham said. "We will not tolerate behaviour that jeopardises its safe operation or undermines public confidence in our transport infrastructure." He added that the public could be assured that all relevant agencies were working together at pace and that lessons from the incidents would be acted upon swiftly.

The economic cost lands on people whose livelihoods depend on the airport's schedule. Richard De La Haye, a taxi driver for more than 40 years, told the BBC the last couple of nights had been difficult. "It's a bit of a nightmare because we're sitting here for a couple of hours really not knowing what's going to happen," he said. If drivers leave, arriving passengers are stranded; if they stay, they may wait for flights that never come.

A growing problem for small airports

Jersey's airport handles a small number of movements compared with a major hub, which makes each cancellation proportionally larger. A single drone in the approach path can close the airfield because the risk of a collision with an aircraft on approach is judged too high to accept.

The island's response follows a pattern seen elsewhere: police investigate, the government promises tougher detection, and the technology gap between cheap consumer drones and airport counter-measures remains the central problem. Detection is improving, but jamming or intercepting a drone near a flight path carries its own risks.

The incident also raises a jurisdictional question. Jersey is a Crown Dependency rather than part of the United Kingdom, so cooperation with UK agencies and specialist equipment has to be arranged rather than assumed, which is one reason the chief minister emphasised joint working.

Air travel disruption of this kind has become a recurring feature of European aviation, alongside staffing shortages and air traffic control problems. The UK has been changing its rules on air travel for families, a shift we covered in our report on airline family seating, while transport safety investigations elsewhere have shown how quickly an accident or incident can reshape public confidence, as our account of the Spain train crash sets out, and a mid-air helicopter collision in Oregon this week illustrated the same risk for aviation, as our report on the Oregon helicopter collision describes.

For Jersey, the immediate priority is to restore a normal schedule before the weekend ends. The longer priority is to make the airport a harder target, which will require equipment, legal powers and cooperation that an island of just over 100,000 people cannot supply on its own.