Drones disrupt two flights into Dublin Airport ahead of busy travel weekend

Fresh drone activity at Dublin Airport saw two inbound flights diverted on Friday with air traffic disrupted for a short period.

The disruption came as the airport gears up for one of its busiest weekends of the year with hundreds of thousands of people set to travel through and from the airport over the bank holiday weekend.

A spokesman for DAA, the authority that runs the airport, told The Irish Times there had been reports of unauthorised drone activity which caused the disruption shortly after midday.

“Flight operations at Dublin Airport were suspended for around 10 minutes just after 12 noon on Friday following the confirmed sighting of a drone in the vicinity of the airfield,” the spokesman said.

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“This led to two flights - one Aer Lingus flight from Frankfurt and one Ryanair flight from Birmingham - being diverted to Belfast. A number of other aircraft were required to hold for a very short period.”

The statement concluded with a remined that it is “illegal to fly a drone without permission within 5km of Dublin Airport”.

In 2015, Ireland became one of the first countries in Europe to legislate for drone use with the law intended to specifically addresses the safety challenges posed by drones.

Under the legislation, a drone cannot operate within five kilometres of an aerodrome or airport. It cannot be used over the heads of an assembly of people, over urban areas or in restricted areas such as military installations or prisons.

A drone is not allowed to fly higher than 120 metres or more than 300 metres from its operator.

There has been disruption at the airport on multiple occasions since the start of the year prompting the DAA to install new anti-drone technology.