Police investigating the chaos and disruption at Gatwick Airport have admitted there may never have been a drone at all.

More than 140,000 passengers were affected by last week's shutdown of Britain's second busiest airport, which was ordered after almost 70 drone sightings were reported in the space of a few hours.

But after two people were released without charge following three days in custody, a senior Sussex detective said it was possible the sightings had simply been false alarms but denied the investigation was “back to square one”.

Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Tingley revealed that the force had received 67 calls from police officers, airport staff and members of the public reporting drone sightings, but said none of them had actually been confirmed.

Asked about speculation there was never a drone, he replied: "Of course, that's a possibility. We are working with human beings saying they have seen something."