In addition to Dubai International Airport, Sharjah International Airport also shuttered activities
It’s only two months away from being 2017 and the Dubai International Airport has been shut down for the third time this year due to unauthorised drone activity over its airspace. What’s more, it wasn’t the only airport to be shut down as the Sharjah International Airport was also shut down.
This has also been the most severe of the shutdowns so far, with both airports delaying departures and arrivals for close to 90 minutes. In retrospect, last month’s suspension of activities at the Dubai International Airport due to drone activity resulted in airport managers shuttering the facility for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, back in June, a similar incident saw the airport being closed for more than an hour.
Airspace around Dubai was closed between 7:25 and 8:45 last night due to the latest incident, resulting in twenty-two inbound flights being diverted to Dubai World Central airport, causing many passengers to miss connecting flights. Sharjah International Airport was closed from 8PM to 9PM last night, due to it and Dubai International Airport sharing flight paths. The closure saw at least eight flights being diverted.
Dubai Airports is working closely with its stakeholders to return operations to normal to minimise customer inconvenience.
— DXB (@DXB) October 29, 2016
The unauthorised drone was said to have been spotted in Al Warqa area of Dubai as investigators carried out a sweeping search for the unidentified flying machine.
Due to the continued infringement of secure airspaces, the UAE is in the process of implementing stricter drone laws, in regards to the sale and usage of drones. It is already against the law in Dubai to fly a drone within five kilometres of no-fly zones, Dubai International Airport being one of the zones. The other three no-fly zones are Al Maktoum Airport, Al Minhad airbase and the Palm Jumeirah around Skydive Dubai.
A 55-minute shutdown of Dubai International Airport last year was estimated to have cost the emirate’s economy Dh3.7 million a minute.
