LONDON • A 47-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman were arrested on suspicion of wreaking havoc with a drone at Gatwick Airport, Britain's second largest air travel hub.

The drone sightings had forced the cancellation or diversion of more than 1,000 flights over three days, affecting 140,000 people, officials said.

The two people were detained on Friday night local time on "suspicion of disrupting services of civil aviation aerodrome to endanger or likely to endanger safety of operations or persons", the Sussex police said yesterday.

The offences carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment on conviction, the police said.

The duo, who were not identified but are both from Crawley, a town just south of the airport, remained in custody yesterday.

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