Ben Gurion Airport Flights Grounded Due to Drone

Ben Gurion Airport Flights Grounded Due to Drone

civil aviation

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Drones continue to pose a threat to civil aviation. All the flights to and from Ben Gurion Airport were grounded for 15 minutes due to the penetration of a drone into the Airport’s airspace on the night between December 12-13.

The Israel Airports Authority said that the police and security teams were dispatched to find the owner of the drone. The incident was reported to the Ministry of Transportation and the Civilian Aviation Authority, according to maariv.co.il.

All arrivals and departures were delayed causing a change of schedule to hundreds of passengers.

The Israel Airports Authority said drones at the airport’s airspace pose a direct risk to the airplanes and aviation security.

Israel’s State Comptroller recently warned about the lack of suitable measures to confront drones threat in Israel. To an article on the subject. 

According to timesofisreal.com, last November, flights were briefly delayed when a pilot landing at Ben Gurion spotted a drone near the runway. In January 2016 a drone approached the airport fences in a suspicious way, and in June that year, a plane preparing to land was forced to change course and ask for a new authorization to land after its pilot identified a drone in the vicinity of the airport.