Former Head Of British Army Calls Gatwick Incident A "National Embarrassment"

22 December 2018, 12:28 | Updated: 8 January 2019, 12:48

The former Chief of the General staff and former head of the British Army, Lord Dannatt, had told LBC that the drone incident at Gatwick Airport is a "national embarrassment".

His comments come shortly after the MP for Crawley, whose constituency includes Gatwick Airport, said the government had not acted quickly enough to solve the issue.

The airport came to a standstill earlier this week after an large drone was spotted nearby, causing hundreds of flight cancellations.

Matt Frei and Lord Dannatt
Matt Frei and Lord Dannatt. Picture: PA/LBC

Lord Dannatt told Matt Frei that there is no reason why the drone couldn't have been shot.

When asked who was to blame, he said: "This should have been gripped on a cross-Whitehall basis some time ago.

"Someone should have taken the initiative...there's a number of players who should have been brought together, and must now be brought together.

"People in Europe are sniggering at us, at our Brexit antics, and we've just given them 36 hours of fun laughing at this pantomime."