Britain's second busiest airport will today remain shut down "for the foreseeable future" as an idiot drone pilot repeatedly steers a modified device over the runway.
Experts say the saboteur – believed to be a lone-wolf green protester – could be controlling it from more than five miles away from the Sussex airport.
As many as a quarter of a million passengers had been affected last night after the drone first appeared yards from packed passenger jets at around 9pm on Wednesday.
But one outraged easyJet traveller – who fears his Gatwick flight today will also be cancelled – was dealt the double insult of being shown an ad for a similar flying device on his boarding pass.
Benoit Guilbaud posted an image of the document on Twitter showing his flight is due to leave Gatwick's North Terminal today.
But at the bottom is a huge ad for a DJI Mavic Drone for rent – with a 40 per cent discount offer for customers.
The high-tech machine can be rented from equipment site Tryatec to shoot aerial film for £100 per week online – but it is on offer at £60 per week for easyJet travellers.
Tryatec's site describes the "ultraportable and foldable drone" as featuring "high-end flight performance and functionality for limitless exploration."
Stunned Benoit wrote: "You couldn't make this up."
The University of Sussex teaching fellow added: "The boarding pass for my maybe-cancelled Easyjet flight from #Gatwick tomorrow advertises… drones!"
Gatwick's Christmas chaos – what we know so far…
- At least one drone has been flown over Gatwick to DELIBERATELY disrupt flights, cops say
- Police launched mass hunt for suspects but say security breach was not “terror related”
- Elite Army troops have been called in to assist cops in hunting down drones
- Furious passengers left stranded inside grounded planes for up to six hours
- Travellers warned there could be at least another 24 hours of Christmas chaos
- Thousands set for refunds and compensation after flights cancelled or delayed
EasyJet apologised for the blunder and vowed to remove the ad from future Gatwick passengers' passes.
A spokesperson told The Sun Online: "easyJet aims to feature destination related content and partner offers on its boarding cards that have a broad appeal to the millions of passengers across Europe who fly with us.
“We fully appreciate that this isn’t the case with this specific advert for a partner offer and apologise for its inclusion.
"We have removed it from future boarding cards.”
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