A TOP cop has admitted drone sightings over Gatwick may have been POLICE units - while making a grovelling apology to the couple wrongfully arrested over the chaos.

Chief Constable of Sussex Police Giles York confirmed the drone was still out there, as the hunt for the yobs responsible enters its second humiliating week.

Mr York told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that officers have not yet found the drone involved and did not know its model.

Mr York said: "Of course, we will have launched our own Sussex Police drones at the time with a view to investigate, with a view to engage, with a view to survey the area looking for the drone, so there could be some level of confusion there."

During the search a drone was found close to the airport - but when prints on the device were run through the national database no match was found.

Mr York also confirmed that military technology had been installed at Gatwick following last week's incident, "dramatically" improving security at the airport. But could not rule out future disruption of the same kind.

Police received 115 reports of sightings in the area, including 92 which have been confirmed as coming from "credible people", he said.

The Chief Constable said he was "really sorry" for Paul Gait and Elaine Kirk, a couple from Crawley, West Sussex, who were detained in the wake of the disruption, but said that the grounds for arrest were "well founded" in lawful suspicion.

He defended the decision to hold Mr Gait for an extended period, despite his employer saying he was at work during the drone flights.

"I'm really sorry for what he has experienced and the feeling of violation around it," Mr York told Today.

"I am really sorry for what he went through, but the reason why we held him was so that we could dispel everything in the first instance. What might have been worse as an experience for him would have been to be released under investigation still.

"We are able to exhaust all our lines of inquiry on that first instance and, however hard it is, able to release him from police custody saying he is no longer a suspect in this line of inquiry.

"That's why we took the time - in order to allow him the best opportunity to put his life back on track."

The blank is another embarrassing setback for the authorities who are still unable to catch those responsible for plunging thousands of people into Christmas travel chaos.

More than 760 flights were cancelled last week when drones were spotted over the runway at Britain’s second busiest airport.

Gatwick was shut down with police snipers assisted by the Army, RAF and MI5 spooks to tried to catch the culprits.

But still as the chase enters the second humiliating week the cops are still no closer.

Speaking to MailOnline, a police source said: “Sussex Police have been working alongside the Met, who hold the National Fingerprint Database, which contains, among others, the biometric information of thousands of extremists from terrorists to far right activists and eco warriors.

"The prints found on the drone did not match any of those on the Yard's database. It's a blow because police were hoping this may give them a new lead in the case."

Yesterday police were branded "Keystone cops" and "clueless" by a furious senior MP.

Sussex Police, the Department for Transport and Gatwick officials all told The Sun there was no update to the week-long investigation.

The probe has so far been marked by a string of embarrassing blunders.

Officers arrested enthusiasts Paul Gait and Elaine Kirk on Friday night - only to release them two days later, admitting they'd got the wrong people.

The wrongly accused couple broke down outside their home as they described the toll their ordeal has taken.

A senior cop then added to the confusion by suggesting there may never have been a drone in the first place.

The force quickly backtracked, insisting there had in fact been dozens of sightings last Wednesday night.

MP John Woodcock, a member of the Commons' home affairs committe, told The Sun: "We are all flabbergasted about how clueless everyone seems over what should be a pretty basic situation.

"It’s like a motorway being brought to a standstill by a couple of kids with remote control cars while the Keystone cops scratch their head."

He warned the disastrous handling of the case should prompt a "thorough rethink" of the law on drones, which are growing increasingly popular.

Mr Woodcock added: "If a couple of amateurs can genuinely disable an entire airport, we should be looking at radical solutions like fitting all drones with chips so they can be immediately disabled in certain zones or which automatically transmit the coordinates of their pilot so mischief makers can be tracked down."

The independent MP also said Sussex Police should be kicked off the probe in the wake of the ongoing chaos.

Scotland Yard boss Cressida Dick insisted the Met Police would be ill-equipped to take over.

But she said the drone fiasco was a "wake-up call", adding: "We need to up our game here, we need to work even more closely with the private companies, we need to work even more closely with the military.

"We need to try to be able to prevent the criminal use of drones for whatever motivation near our airports.

"If somebody does do that, we need to find them as quickly as possible, get the drone under control and also bring the people to justice."

Gatwick is still offering a £50,000 reward for information to bring the drone vandals to justice.