A man ha­­­s been charged with flying a drone near London’s Heathrow airport days after a similar scare grounded more than 1,000 flights at the British capital's Gatwick Airport.

George Rusu, 38, is accused of using a drone on a field near a runway the Europe’s busiest airport on December 24 and will appear in court on Tuesday. He is accused of flying a “small unmanned aircraft without the permission of air traffic control”.

The incident came three days after Gatwick Airport, south of the capital and the country’s second-biggest airport, fully reopened after three days of chaos following the repeated sightings of a drone.

The chaos led to the travel plans of about 140,000 passengers being affected. Nobody has been arrested over those incidents.

Flights were also stopped briefly at Heathrow in January due to a drone sighting.

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