"Military capability" deployed to counter illegal drone flights at Gatwick Airport has been withdrawn, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed. The Army was deployed as hundreds of flights were cancelled on 20 December following repeated drone sightings. Gatwick said it had spent £5m to prevent future attacks, but would not comment on the nature of the system. Sussex Police said no arrests have been made since a couple were released without charge on 23 December. More than 140,000 passengers were affected by cancellations and delays during the 36 hours of chaos.

Sussex Police's chief constable has said he feels "really sorry" for the couple who were held for 36 hours over the Gatwick Airport drones chaos. Paul Gait and Elaine Kirk, who were released without charge, said they felt "violated" after their home was searched and their identities exposed. Giles York told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme he was "convinced the grounds for arrest were well-founded". Two drones found near the airport have been ruled out of being involved. Mr York defended the decision to hold Mr Gait for an extended period, despite his employer saying he was at work during the drone flights.

A 47-year-old man and 54-year-old woman from Crawley are being questioned over multiple drone sightings that brought Gatwick Airport to a standstill. Flights were grounded for more than 36 hours when drones were first spotted close to the runway on Wednesday night. The airport has since reopened and flights were operating on schedule, but there were still long queues and some knock-on delays, a spokesman said. Police are searching a house in Crawley and the pair remain in custody. They were arrested on Friday evening and were being questioned on suspicion of disrupting civil aviation "to endanger or likely to endanger safety of operations or persons", Sussex Police said.

Two people have been arrested in connection with the "criminal use of drones" at London Gatwick Airport, police have said, after three days of disruption affected tens of thousands of passengers during the pre-Christmas getaway. Drones were first sighted hovering around Britain's second-busiest air hub on Wednesday, grinding the runway to a standstill and causing chaos for more than 120,000 people. "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 10:00pm (22:00 GMT) on December 21," the force's Superintendent James Collis said. "Every line of enquiry will remain open to us until we are confident that we have mitigated further threats to the safety of passengers." Police and military experts had been deployed to search for the drone operators which appeared near the airport every time it was expected to reopen.