Amritsar, Sept 07 (NVI): Flight operations at Amritsar airport were suspended for around 85 minutes after drones were spotted across the airfield, Airport Director Anirudh Kumar Sharma said.
According to Sharma, the airport’s Air Traffic Control (ATC) received information from the Indian Air Force at around 9:45 pm that drones had been spotted over the airfield. Several aircraft scheduled to land at Amritsar were already circling overhead at the time.
Following the airport’s standard operating procedure for drone sightings, a Joint Action Committee was activated and convened in the control tower. The committee assessed that the drone activity could disrupt aircraft landings and decided to temporarily suspend operations.
Operations were halted at around 9:50 pm, with approximately seven aircraft holding overhead subsequently diverted. Two flights were diverted to Chandigarh, while five were sent to Delhi.
The Joint Action Committee reviewed the situation around 11 pm and, after no further drone activity was reported, decided to resume operations. The airport was reopened at around 11:15 pm.
Of the seven diverted flights, five subsequently returned to Amritsar. One Air India flight that had been diverted to Delhi was cancelled, while a Malaysia Airlines flight was expected to arrive later, Sharma said.
“Everything has returned to normal,” the airport director said, adding that the police were handling the investigation into the drone sightings.—(NVI)
