today at five: britain's second busiest airport reopens after drones inside the perimeter closed it for more than 30 hours. as flights resume, the police hunt for whoever was behind the chaos goes on. we do have a number of lines of enquiry, we do have persons of interest, and we are working through those with our best teams, our best investigators, and there is a huge amount of intelligence that we are trawling through. there are still delays and some cancellations, many passengers remain stranded at the airport. it is frustrating and i mean i won't be spending christmas with the family which is sad but again, it is all out of my control. there is very little i can do about it. we'll be live with our reporter at gatwick and talking to an expert on drone defence technology. the other main stories on bbc news at 5: donald trump's defence secretary — jim mattis — becomes the latest in a string of top white house officials to resign — a day after the president announced he's pulling us troops out of syria. a service in lockerbie to remember

the 270 people killed when pan am flight 103 was blown up — 30 years ago. and in half an hour, we take a front row seat, as mark kermode looks back on the big releases of the year — in review 2018: the year in film. it's five o'clock. our top story: nearly two days after the first sighting of a drone above gatwick, passengers are still facing cancellations, even though the runway reopened this morning. the hunt for the drone operators continues —

police say they are investigating what they described as ‘persons of interest‘. gatwick was closed on wednesday night after drones were seen flying inside its perimeter. these are the latest developments. today, gatwick said 837 flights were due to go ahead as normal — but 155 have been cancelled. the transport secretary chris grayling says the use of drones to paralyse gatwick was ‘unprecedented', but labour has accused the government of not doing enough to prevent yesterday's chaos. the drone operators haven't been caught. the army is now at gatwick using specialist anti drone technology to protect the runway. 0ur correspondent navtej johal is at gatwick. good evening. yes, as you have been saying, there has been a much more positive mood at the airport today

and that is because, largely, things are slowly returning to normal. of the roughly 800 flights that were struck at —— scheduled to arrive or depart, most of them are going ahead. things are expected to return bigley to normal as of tomorrow evening. however, the knock—on effect of the last two days worth of carnage and chaos have been belted a, particularly from the passengers who are expected to flight yesterday or the evening before and i have got a couple of people with me now who have been affected. linda and charlotte, you guys were supposed to be in la nza rote charlotte, you guys were supposed to be in lanzarote yesterday afternoon. what has happened in the last couple of days? we were travelling yesterday morning at 740 am. we got to the airport to realise there was disruption is. we were not told

untilfour disruption is. we were not told until four o'clock in the afternoon that our flight had been cancelled. we were hoping through the day, we would get good news but can does mike know, that did not happen. they ran out of food vouchers. charlotte, how are you feeling? this has taken its toll on lots of passengers including the party of eight you are with. the whole thing is very stressful. we have children in the party and they are very upset and there is a fear that christmas can be ruined. we're not having the plans we initially thought we were going ahead with. do you have any sympathy for those saying it has been an unprecedented incident and no one could have addicted this could have happened? not particularly, it has taken so long to sort the situation out. brats the military could have been called in earlier, lack of information for the

passengers have been very poor yesterday. you would expect someone like gatwick to have constituencies for anything that could happen —— contingencies. you would have thought they would have thought about something but may happen. and you are expected to fly out tomorrow afternoon? yes, we are going through glasgow. so we will be there for it christmas. that isjust glasgow. so we will be there for it christmas. that is just a glasgow. so we will be there for it christmas. that isjust a couple of people affected by the disruption of the last few days but generally be story has been improving. in terms of the investigation, the police have told us they are still looking for those behind the drone and tried to find the drone themselves. the military and the police are all working to find those responsible, they have not done so yet but the ru nway they have not done so yet but the runway has been secured from around six o'clock this morning. robbie airport, the adviser is, as it has

been for the last few days, check the status of your flight before you come here. make sure you check with the airline that things have turned to normal. the likes of ba have told us to normal. the likes of ba have told us they are expecting to run is full schedule but that is not the case with everyone so make sure you check, before you come here. thank you very much indeed. let us get a round—up of today's event at gatwick, there is a report on this. the sight that thousands of travellers have been waiting to see. after a day and a half, aircraft finally landing and taking off, early this morning at gatwick airport. good news for many but plenty remain stranded here. and face a long journey ahead. so, tomorrow we will have to take a train to edinburgh to get our flight to copenhagen and we have to cancel our tourfrom sweden to copenhagen because we have a connecting flight from copenhagen to rome, so this holiday really went wrong for us. there is ten of us here.

ron has been waiting since wednesday night for a flight to antigua to join his family. he will now have to fly on christmas day. very frustrating that i will not be spending christmas with the family which is sad, but again, it is all out of my control so i'm afraid there's nothing ican do about it, and unfortunately, there is no flights to antigua everyday so it's not like i canjust say, oh, i'll go tomorrow. well, today is one of the biggest days of the year for people to be travelling, the final weekend before christmas, and the airport has said that the disruption caused by this incident will continue throughout the weekend. could this be the cause of the disruption? this device was spotted near the airfield yesterday. police are yet to find the device or the operator behind it. what has changed is there is a number of mitigating measures in place, provided by a number of government agencies and the

military to ensure that i have the confidence to reopen my airport. although the incident is not believed to be terror related, it has caused the debate around how to protect airports in the future. it is clearly a kind of disruptive activity that we have not seen before. this kind of incident is unprecedented anywhere in the world, for disrupting any airport in this way. we're going to have to learn very quickly about what has happened, i plan to convene discussions with other airports around the uk very quickly indeed. it's an incredibly difficult offence to detect and arrest a suspect for. what i will say is we do have a number of lines of enquiry, we do have persons of interest and we are working through those with our best teams, our best investigators and there is a huge amount of intelligence that we are trawling through. it's unclear what methods have been deployed to mitigate the risk to the airport. there are a number of options, such as the drone detection technology developed by this american company. we can track them with radar, we can detect the signal between the drone and the controller, using our detection technology.

0n the countermeasure side, we can disrupt controlling between the drone and the controller, and we can also disrupt the drone's ability to navigate using gps. for those passengers affected by the problems of the last two days, an unwelcome holiday headache awaits to work out what they are entitled to. my device to the passengers who are turning up in the hope of getting away, is put your problem in the hands of the airline. it really is their legal responsibility to make sure that you are on your way as swiftly as possible. most scheduled flights will be going ahead today. after a turbulent few days the airport is now expecting things to slowly return to normal. let's go to sheffield now and speak to richard gill — he's the founder of drone defence, a company which makes tracking and jamming devices for airports, prisons and other contractors. thank you for being with us. it is

clear that the army have now been deployed at gatwick, they are using them anti—drone technology. we do not know exactly what that give us an idea of what kind of technology that would probably be? their a number of different method you can use to detect a drone and based on radars, which is traditionally the traditional detection method but people will be used to, drones generally rely on a radio signal between the person on the ground and the radio controller and radial va ca ncy the radio controller and radial vacancy detection tends to be the most prevalent methods to detect drugs. —— drones. most prevalent methods to detect drugs. -- drones. are you surprised by how easily the whole of gatwick has been closed down by rogue drone operators flying some of these roads around the riveter? it is

interesting because we do not know who has done this and what their intent was. without understanding this, it is hard to talk about the impacts this has had. 0n this, it is hard to talk about the impacts this has had. on my surprise? i am impacts this has had. on my surprise? iam not impacts this has had. on my surprise? i am not and we talk about it in our industry, and it is an early—stage and history, about the impact that drones can have on places like airports. the airport has no choice but to take the safest decision and they did that by securing the air space and getting the military. they had to make the decision that was the safest by the passengers and thankfully nobody was hurt. because the airspace so they could secure it once that happens, the reopened the skies. does this mean that not all the gatwick but other airports in the country and other airports in the country and other transport hubs will have two beef up their anti—drone defences? not only airports but other places

like football stadiums but can be impacted ids kind of technology. drones have a positive potential but there are elements of society that are going to use this for less honourable purposes as we have seen in gatwick. this is an exceptional incident, we've not seen anything like this anywhere in the world before. thank you richard for being with us. we can talk with baroness lane fox about this, who sits on the committee for national security strategy. what do you make of what is being going on at gatwick and what are the lessons we need to learn from this whole episode and all this chaos? the first thing is, lam sure all this chaos? the first thing is, i am sure like everybody is ijust feel so sorry for everyone stuck at the airport unable to get to the people they want to see. that is the first and third but i think you also

have to ask questions about why the airport was not prepared for this kind of incident as be their bread—and—butter but the question around technology is really interesting. i was laughing when the previous speakers said new technology like computers, i do not think computers are very new but new technology is emerging of the time and we have to have legislation that is able to keep up with innovations that are happening. it is difficult because we are just beginning to understand some of the consequences of this new technology and this patching up of how governments look at them. same question really, other just asked richard, do we now need to ask other airports to have this kind of technology and anti—drone defines and as he was adjusting, other places like football stadiums,

other places like football stadiums, other transport hubs and so on?” think again, there was a lot of work done and parliament. there was a house of lords select committee about drone technology and do a lot of recommendations that the government need to look at against a mac i do not think anybody in the government has a possibility for this issue, that is one of the challenges. this issue falls across many different bits of government but i think the first thing is probably to make sure somebody in government is responsibility —— is responsible. we need to decide what our most important bits of infrastructure is and what is to be protected. we look at threats from cyber attack. in a way, drone technology is an extension of that solicitor culminated area and one of the first things is defines a leading government to be responsible for it and work out what the next step should be. thank you for

joining us. the headlines on bbc news... police say they have identified ‘persons of interest‘ in the hunt for those responsible for drones that halted operations at gatwick airport. the us defence secretary james mattis resigns — a day after president trump announces the withdrawal of troops from syria. a remembrance service has taken place in lockerbie to remember the 270 people who were killed when pan am flight 103 was destroyed by a bomb over the town in 1988. and is bought, manchester united‘s ca reta ker and is bought, manchester united‘s caretaker boss said he would love to remain manager but has not discussed taking thejob remain manager but has not discussed taking the job on a permanent basis. he held his first press conference this morning. the chief executive of the england and wales cricket board said the player can still be a role model, despite the charge of putting the game into beat. and six time

0lympic sprint champion, allyson felix has given birth to her daughter six weeks prematurely. it‘s 30 years ago today that pan—am flight 103 was blown up in mid—air over the market town of lockerbie. memorial services have been held today to commemorate the anniversary, and remember the 270 people who lost their lives. and in arlington cemetery in washington, families have gathered to remember their loved ones. 0ur scotland correspondent lorna gordon reports. bagpipes play. 0n the shortest day, lockerbie remembers its longest night, remembers the lives cut short in the deadliest terror attack the uk has ever suffered. 30 years ago, pan am flight 103 blew up in the skies over the scottish town. 11 people in lockerbie died, their homes obliterated by the debris which rained down.

all 259 on—board the new york bound flight also lost their lives. with kindness and compassion, the people of lockerbie looked after the relatives, and the memories of those who died. among them — nicole boulanger — an american student returning home for christmas. her body was never recovered, but her personal possessions and clothes were amongst those collected and carefully washed by volunteers to return to those bereaved. sometimes we get guardian angels in life and that certainly is an example of the love, the dedication, and the caring of a group of people in another country who did not know our children, but who knew how much this would mean to their families. for some, likejim swire, who lost his daughter flora in the attack, there are still unanswered questions. 0verwhelmingly, the awful thing about lockerbie was the needless death of 270 innocent people, who could have been protected had

the government of the day taken appropriate steps. having said that, the refusal of our government, and the american government, of course, to come out with what they know about the truth, has been a terrible added burden to many. and for all, the focus today, the families, the sons, the daughters that died. helga mosey was 19 and a passenger on the plane that december night. we miss our daughter, and we wonder how she would have done, what her musical career would have been like. would we have been grandparents to her children? we don‘t know. we still remember her as she was, lively. and be thankful we had her for so long. 19 years isn't long, but they were happy years. 30 years on, the love and memories ever strong and in lockerbie, another moment for remembrance and respect. lorna gordon, bbc news, lockerbie.

let‘s go to washington now and speak to dick marquise, he was the original head of the lockerbie fbi investigation from 1988 until 1992. thank you for being with us. tell us what it was like and how hard it was investigating what happened in those first couple of years? clearly the scottish police had the bulk of the investigation because that is where the crime scene was. it took us a while to get to work together and deal with victims but fortunately, we we re deal with victims but fortunately, we were able to come to what we believe was a partial resolution at the trial into thousand and one. —— 2001. who do you believe, over all, was responsible for what happens?

family coppers do think there was? —— how many culprits do you think there were? we believe strongly it was a libyan government operation with more than a handful of people, some of whom have died and others who lives in libya. we would love to get those people and bring them to justice. will that search for justice. will that search for justice go on in the united states? i went to a ceremony yesterday at fbi headquarters and the attorney general and the director of the fbi said this investigation will continue until everybody is either dead, on, we‘re going to continue this investigation, both the fbi and the scotland are going to continue this. and of course, this was such a shocking tragedy. so many americans citizens died, so many young

citizens. describe the impact it had in america when it happened. first of all, it was an american carrier, it was an attack on the united states of america, there was over a hundred americans. all of those communities were directly impacted. of course lockerbie was and we can ever forget the town of lockerbie but lost 11 residents by the impact unite states was astonishing, it was terrible, it was the first major attack in the west against the united states against international terrorists. we had some minor cases that may have happened in the middle east, nicely minor attacks on some of our military —— ice the minor attacks on some of our military operations but it was relatively unheard of. and 30 years on, what

are your feelings now, unheard of. and 30 years on, what are yourfeelings now, what unheard of. and 30 years on, what are your feelings now, what are your emotions? as you mentioned, only one man brought to justice. emotions? as you mentioned, only one man brought tojustice. are emotions? as you mentioned, only one man brought to justice. are you angry that bore people were not brought to justice? are you sad, readers appointed? —— are you disappointed? i have said, in recent times, one of my biggest sadnesses of this whole situation was we were unable to bring more than two people to court, to bring the evidence and to court, to bring the evidence and to bring them to trial. we knew they we re to bring them to trial. we knew they were others involved but the evidence could not be developed because a lot of this investigation had to be conducted in libya and we could not do that. as a result of that, we have a lot of misgivings about the fact that we have not convicted more people but i feel bad, mostly, but those whose relatives were killed on the plane. thank you very much indeed. breaking

news. back to gatwick and they are saying that gatwick airport has suspended the runway there once again because of reports of another drone flying. we have not had that confirmed through our own sources yet but another you news agency i think that gatwick has suspended the ru nway think that gatwick has suspended the runway again after reports of another drone. we do not but what was happening earlier was that most whites had resumed, some 800 odd flights were due to be taking off and landing again today with about hundred and 50, hundred and 60 cancellations but if this is right, then this is another blow for gatwick airport and for many more passengers. we will get more on but because we note that the army of course, are deployed at gatwick as well as a huge police presence and

the army have brought in some pretty sophisticated anti—drone technology. we do not have details of this but it was according to the transport secretary, enough to keep passengers at gatwick says and to allow flights in and out of the airport to resume and of course, but‘s second busiest airport but now we‘re hearing that gatwick airport has suspended the ru nway gatwick airport has suspended the runway again after more reports of a drug like this. —— a drone flying there. reports from washington suggest president trump is preparing to announce that thousands of american troops will be withdrawn from afghanistan. some republicans as well as democrats have expressed dismay at the resignation of the us defence secretary, jim mattis , who, in a letter to donald trump, warned america needed to show respect to its allies. 0ur correspondent dan johnson is in washington first of all, why has the defence

secretary quit in the latest of a long line of washington officials to leave their posts? yes, it is anotherjob leave their posts? yes, it is another job that will leave their posts? yes, it is anotherjob that will need to be filled in the new year. i think it became clear thatjim mattis and donald trump could not work together any longer and that seems to be because the worldview of these two men were getting opposed. mattis is a man who has worked as a career in international relations, with respect for allies are not working in partnership and hejust respect for allies are not working in partnership and he just felt that donald trump‘s foreign policy which is to put american first and to only pursue american interests and withdraw from these international organisations and partnerships, was not something he could see through any longer and was not something he was comfortable towards. he said the policy towards china and russia was not clear and he was obviously upset by the surprise decision that us troops would be drawn completely

from syria. now that he is gone, there is concern about who will take over and whether better someone who will carry out the president‘s wishes or it will be someone like jim mattis who will stand up to him. thank you. more on gatwick. we were reporting that the runway had been shutdown again by different press agencies. and airport spokeswoman is saying that flights at gatwick have now been suspended again due to a suspected drone citing. the first sighting on wednesday night that shut the airport for over 30 hours, 33 hours in total. light is then resumed just before six o‘clock this morning and it was hoped that the airport was going to be back up and running, some 800 —— 850 flights is

due to take off and land as normal. not to the normal timetable but they we re not to the normal timetable but they were hoping to get those white in and out of the airport with about a cancellations but now we are hearing that the airport runway has again been suspended. we do not know how long for, whether it is just for a brief period or perhaps for a few hours. we do not know but for the moment, and airport spokeswoman has been quoted saying that flights have been quoted saying that flights have been suspended once more because of another drone citing. as we were saying, the army are there, they have anti—drone technology in place but there has been another drone citing and that is clearly worrying the authorities. the do not want to ta ke the authorities. the do not want to take any risks at all with incoming or outgoing flights so they are suspending flights at gatwick once again. this year many train passengers have

had to endure delays, cancellations and changing timetables. but spare a thought for the inhabitants of 0rmskirk and preston. figures?obtained?by bbc news show that northern rail has cancelled more?than 2,000 services since may on the one line between the two towns. the boss of northern told us the situation for all? its passengers will improve — after?scores? of services were suspended? in the?autumn. if it doesn‘t, ?the mayor of greater manchester, andy burnham says the company should be stripped of its franchise. 0ur?transport correspondent, tom burridge,? reports. is this the worst rail line in britain? it has been for a year now. people not knowing when it is going to turn up. people have been worried about theirjobs, to turn up. people have been worried about their jobs, when to turn up. people have been worried about theirjobs, when you are a lwa ys about theirjobs, when you are always late and it is not your fault. in the last month, not a single train ran. asked passengers

feel abandoned, forgotten and generally treated as second class passengers. it is the fact that i have to tell work that i'm going to be late for work, i am not going to be late for work, i am not going to be there that day, because i get paid hourly i'm going to lose those hours. beeline links, orsmkirk to preston, two large towns with links in between. 0urfigures show preston, two large towns with links in between. 0ur figures show that a third of all services on this line is that with did not run in the last six months. it is symptomatic of how real passengers in the north of england have been badly let down. real passengers in the north of england have been badly let downm isjust not england have been badly let downm is just not been england have been badly let downm isjust not been acceptable. myself and the team are fully committed to getting that right and we are seeing improvement. it hasn't, the last few months now? it is coming now and we're starting to see a stabilisation of this franchise. we are fit to deliver this franchise,

next you we are starting to see more capacity, you trade is being introduced on the system. the mayor of greater ancestor is not so sure. i think they should be giving clear notice. things have to improve. certainly, by the very latest, the made timetable change next year 's, and if they do not, they should be stripped of the franchise. back in 0rsmkirk, a familiar story. stripped of the franchise. back in orsmkirk, a familiar story. 15 minutes late. for some, this is not just about trains. if you have not got a good transport system in the area, people will not bring money into the area and the best. northern rail says trains were damaged by caliphs and services removed this train