Drone activity suspected at Dubai airport, flights grounded

Saturday, February 16, 2019

Due to suspected drone activity on Friday, flights at Dubai airport were grounded. Between local time 10.13-10.45 all flights were suspended as per the Dubai International Airport spokesperson.

Flights at Dubai airport were grounded due to suspected drone activity on Friday morning.  However, the services were now resumed as normal.

The Government of Dubai Media Office tweeted that Dubai Airports confirms that operations at Dubai International are back to normal after less than 30 minutes of delay due to unauthorized drone activity.

Flying drones without obtaining permission will be subjected to legal liability as per the UAE laws.

General Civil Aviation Authority director-general Saif Mohammed al-Suwaidi  said that the penalties for unauthorized drone use were severe in the UAE.

The delays caused by the drone caused unrest among the passengers. A passenger Anush Wijesinha wrote earlier this morning that – Stuck for ages at Dubai airport runway unable to taxi as unauthorized drones have entered the airspace here and all takeoffs have been grounded!

In the last three months in the UK both Gatwick and Heathrow saw high profile shut-downs due to the drones.

More than 1,000 flights were disrupted and hundreds of thousands of passengers affected as the London Gatwick was closed in the run-up to Christmas. There were 100 sightings of drones around the airfield from credible sources.

During last month Heathrow grounded all flights due to unauthorized drone activity for an hour.

There have been million of investments into anti-drone technology in both the airports.

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