Flight services disrupted for 3 hours at Amritsar airport after drone-like objects spotted

Flight services at the airport here were disrupted for about three hours after the air traffic control (ATC) tower spotted a sudden movement of three objects resembling drones in the airspace, officials said on Wednesday. This disrupted the landing and taking off operations of all the scheduled flights during the period, they said.

Speaking to PTI on Wednesday, Sandeep Aggarwal, officiating Director of Shri Guru Ramdas International Airport, said the incident happened on Monday at 10.10 pm and movement of the drone-like objects was active almost for three hours.

He said the flight operations at the airport remained suspended from 10.10 pm to 12.45 am, after which the services were resumed following a clearance from the ATC tower.

Aggarwal said the airport authorities immediately informed the police after the movement of the drone-like objects was noticed.

The police, however, are yet to find if they were drones and who was operating them.

The help of the local Air Force station adjoining the airport was also sought in the matter, Aggarwal said.

He said the movement of such objects in the air was reported the first time here and it was a matter of deep concern for the authorities due to the close proximity of the airport to the Indo-Pak border.

When contacted, SHO Airport, Harsimar said a complaint to the police had been made by the Airport Authority.

The SHO said after the matter was reported to police, a comprehensive joint search operation with Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) was launched whereupon several people from different villages around the airport were questioned but none had any clue about the objects flying around the airport.

She said usually when drones move in the air, the lights fitted atop blink, but in this case there was a "single spotlight" as per airport authority.

Investigation is on in the matter and it is too early to say whether they were drones or some other article.