Yahoo News Flights resume at Dublin Airport following drone sighting
Flights have resumed at Dublin Airport after an earlier “confirmed sighting of a drone” prompted a 30-minute suspension of operations.
In a statement, the airport said that a pilot had reported a drone sighting to air traffic control at around 11.30am.
Citing “safety reasons,” it said that flight operations were suspended “in line with agreed protocols for confirmed drone sightings.”
“As there were no further drone sighting within the 30-minute suspension period, Dublin Airport resumed flight operations shortly after noon.”
Three flights were diverted due the disruption, and the airport said that there will also be some knock-on delays to flights on Thursday.
Flight operations have now resumed @DublinAirport following an earlier drone sighting. We apologise for any inconvenience. The safety and security of passengers is always our key priority.
— Dublin Airport (@DublinAirport) February 21, 2019
Dublin Airport said that police and other authorities were informed of the incident immediately — Ireland has drone regulations that impose a 5km exclusion zone around airports, among other things.
In December, reported drone sightings resulted in a 36-hour shutdown of London’s Gatwick airport — the UK’s second-largest airport. More than 100,000 passengers were affected.
Meanwhile, flights were disrupted for around an hour at London’s Heathrow airport in January.
READ MORE: Cost of Gatwick shutdown could easily reach into the millions
Estimates suggest that businesses — including airlines, retailers, hotels and taxis — could easily have lost tens of millions in combined revenues as a result of the fracas at Gatwick, with the airport alone thought to have lost hundreds of thousands of pounds in revenue.
Low-cost behemoth EasyJet (EZJ.L), which has its biggest base at Gatwick, said it had lost £15m due to the disruption, with around £10m of the costs related to customer welfare.
The incident affected around 82,000 of its customers and led to more than 400 flights being cancelled.
In January, the Irish transport ministry said that it would carry out a “fresh detailed risk assessment” of threats to Irish airports, including those posed by drones.
“The recent reported events in the UK have understandably caused some public concern,” the ministry said in a statement at the time. “The minister has been reassured that there are already strong regulatory provisions in place in Ireland.”
Since the sightings at Gatwick, the UK government has announced plans to give authorities the power to land, seize, and search drones.
