No that wasn't Santa trying to reach the UK with gifts before Christmas. It was drones.
London's Gatwick Airport, the UK's second largest airport was shut down for more than a day due to drones flying overhead. The end result was roughly 120,000 passengers were severely inconvenienced at a time of the year where travel is at its' peak.
This was not "terrorism" according to local authorities, but who really knows. Shutting down the airport, stranding travelers, and calling it an extraordinary event meant that the passengers have no recourse for refunds and for many the process of getting where they planned to be for the holidays has been stymied. For some it means delays in getting home. For others it's a delay in reaching their holiday destination.
To call it a bloody disaster is a understatement. As someone who has traveled through Gatwick more than most Americans (at least twice a year for the last 15 years) I know how many people rely on the airport that's south of London by 30 minutes. For starters it's a major gateway to the European continent. It's also the airport of choice for holiday travelers on charters, as well as those who buy tickets on the economy airlines like EasyJet, RyanAir and Monarch. It's also the airport that Norweigian Air flies to the USA from out of the UK.
Media here in the U.S. has given it light coverage compared to how other global disasters are covered, largely because it's not the airport most people think of when they travel to London, or Europe, from the USA. If this had been Heathrow as the affected airport, more media coverage would have been out there. That may be a good thing, as the lack of on the scene, local coverage, where local contacts are supplying the information in theory is the better way to go.
That said, the "could it happen here" scenario is one we all need to consider, as copycats are everywhere. Let's hope for the sake of travelers everywhere it just doesn't happen again.