Rogue drone forces hour-long closure of Dubai International Airport
Flights diverted, thousands of passengers affected after incident at one of the world’s busiest aviation hubs
Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest airport for international travel, closed its airspace for 69 minutes due to unauthorised drone activity on Saturday, causing 22 flights to be diverted, aviation authorities said.
Government-owned Dubai Airports, which operates Dubai’s two main airports, said in a statement the closure lasted between 11:36 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. local time, and Dubai Airports chief executive Paul Griffiths said thousands of passengers suffered disruption to their journeys.
Sixteen of the diverted flights went to Dubai World Central, Dubai’s other main airport, a Dubai Airports spokesperson said. Dubai, a trade, tourism and investment hub for the Gulf region, is one of seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“This is a very serious incident and we obviously take the safety of our customers and our staff extremely seriously,” Griffiths said.
“As you can imagine, this is the busiest international airport in the world and there was major inconvenience to thousands of passengers ... There are very clear restrictions and no fly zones around all airports in the UAE, saying that this type of activity is actually illegal.”