Man in court following Heathrow alert

A man appeared in court today charged with endangering an aircraft after a major security alert at the UK’s biggest airport.

Ketheeswaran Uthayakumar, aged 27, a Sri Lankan national with no permanent address in this country, was remanded in custody after a short hearing at Uxbridge Magistrate’s Court, west London.

He was arrested near the northern runway of Heathrow Airport shortly after 2pm on Thursday.

The incident caused the runway to be partially closed, and led to flight delays and some cancellations.

The security breach came the day before the Queen opened the £4.3bn (€5.6bn) Terminal 5 building – and was the second serious incident at the airport within 18 days.

Uthayakumar will appear before the same court on Thursday.