LONDON — British authorities have arrested a married couple on suspicion of wreaking havoc with a drone at Gatwick Airport, forcing hundreds of planes to be grounded or diverted and delaying tens of thousands of holiday travelers.

Henry Smith, a member of Parliament whose constituency includes Gatwick Airport, said that law enforcement officials identified the two as Paul Gait, 47, and his wife Elaine Kirk, 54. Local police officials said they had detained a man and a woman of the same ages on Friday night, but they did not name them. They are from Crawley, a town just south of the airport.

The couple are suspected of disrupting civil aviation services and endangering people or operations — offenses that carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, according to the police. They have not been formally charged and are still in custody, but the police did not release further details.

The incident exposed the vulnerabilities of the airport to outside interference and drew attention to the limitations of security officials responding to such a threat at a peak travel time. Gatwick is Britain’s second-largest air travel hub.