The couple who allegedly brought Gatwick Airport to a standstill for two days have been pictured for the first time.

*Update: The couple were released without charge and ‘deeply distressed’ by the experience*

Elaine Kirk, 54, and Paul Gait, 47, from Crawley, have been named locally as the middle-aged suspects arrested by police, but Gait’s boss believes they have the wrong couple.

Earlier today, Sussex Police confirmed a man and a woman were detained by officers ‘in the Gatwick area’ at around 10pm on Friday.


Paul Gait and Elaine Kirk-Gait have been named locally as the couple behind the drones (Picture: INS)

Paul Gait and Elaine Kirk-Gait (Picture: INS)

Gait’s boss John Allard, who runs Allard Double Glazing in Crowborough, East Sussex, told the Telegraph: ‘I don’t think it can be him. He was busy on site working when it was happening.’



He said Gait had flown drones before in the past as a hobby.

‘He is a reliable family man who has been with me for 17 years and has never given me any problems at all,’ he added.

‘He may have picked up the interest in model flying from me because I’ve been doing it for 40 years.’

He also said Gait’s wife Elaine had no interest in drones as far as he knew.

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Police raided a home in Crawley in connection with the Gatwick drones (Picture: Peter Macdiarmid/LNP)

Photos from the married couple’s Facebook pages show them leading a happy life, far removed from the chaos suffered by hundreds of thousands at Gatwick this week.

In 2010, Paul Gait, who works as a window fitter, shared several photos of a remote controlled helicopter.

The arrests followed a witness account from a man who saw a cyclist ‘frantically’ packing away two drones down a country lane near the airport.

Motorist Paul Motts, 52, said he saw a man wearing hi-vis clothing and crouching over a drone near the West Sussex airport on Thursday.

He told the Sun: ‘I was delivering a parcel and drove past a suspicious man in fluorescent cycling gear crouching over a large drone which was all lit up.

Paul Gait shared several photos of a remote controlled helicopter on Facebook in 2010

Photos showed the couple leading a happy life

Paul Gait and Elaine Kirk-Gait are believed to be in police custody

‘It looked like he was packing the drones away. Two minutes later we turned around and came across him cycling away.

‘I expect he wanted to disassemble the drone as quickly as possible and get away as fast as he could.’

The man had been standing over one 4ft drone and another 2ft device, Mr Motts reported.

Paul Gait and Elaine Kirk-Gait (Picture: INS)

The chaos began on Wednesday night and the airport ground to a halt all day on Thursday.

More than 140,000 people have been affected with around 1,000 aircraft cancelled or diverted.

On Friday a limited number of planes began to fly but the airport was forced to close again at 5pm after a drone was spotted above the airfield.

It opened an hour later.

The Army were called in on Friday and used jamming devices in the hope of knocking the drones out of the sky.

Police said a drone had been spotted more than 50 times since the runway at Gatwick was first closed at 9pm on Wednesday.

Gatwick Airport is now open but there could be delays to flights (Picture: SWNS)

The police and the army were drafted in to deal with the chaos (Picture: AFP)

Drone pilots using them criminally can face up to five years in jail.



Sussex Police Superintendent James Collis said: ‘As part of our ongoing investigations into the criminal use of drones which has severely disrupted flights in and out of Gatwick Airport, Sussex Police made two arrests just after 10pm on Friday (December 21).

‘Our investigations are still ongoing and our activities at the airport continue to build resilience to detect and mitigate further incursions from drones, by deploying a range of tactics.

‘We continue to urge the public, passengers and the wider community around Gatwick to be vigilant and support us by contacting us immediately if they believe they have any information that can help us in bringing those responsible to justice.

‘The arrests we have made are a result of our determination to keep the public safe from harm, every line of inquiry will remain open to us until we are confident that we have mitigated further threats to the safety of passengers.

‘Anyone with information about the incident or who may have suspicions about the drone operators is asked to report online or call 101 quoting Operation Trebor. If you see anyone acting suspiciously in the area of the airport, please dial 999 immediately.

‘A 47-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman, both from Crawley, were arrested in the town on suspicion of disrupting services of civil aviation aerodrome to endanger or likely to endanger safety of operations or persons. They remained in custody.’

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