Suspicious Drone Spotted Hovering Over Amritsar Airport

Amritsar, September 8:- Flight operations at Amritsar Airport were suspended for around one and a half hours on Sunday night after a drone was spotted over the airspace. During this period, seven flights were diverted. Airport Director Anirudh Kumar Sharma said operations resumed at 11:15 p.m. after the situation returned to normal.
According to the Airport Director, Air Traffic Control (ATC) received information from the Indian Air Force at around 9:45 p.m. about a drone being spotted over the airfield. At that time, several flights scheduled to land in Amritsar were circling in the airspace. In accordance with the airport’s Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) regarding drones, the Joint Action Committee (JAC) was activated, and a meeting was held in the control tower.
Concerned that the presence of the drone could affect scheduled landings, the committee decided to close the airfield at around 9:50 p.m. Around seven aircraft circling in the airspace had to be diverted to other airports; two flights were sent to Chandigarh and five to Delhi.
Sharma said the JAC reviewed the situation at around 11:00 p.m. Since no further drone activity was detected, a decision was taken to resume operations, and the airport was reopened for flights at 11:15 p.m. Following this, five of the seven diverted flights returned to Amritsar. One Air India flight diverted to Delhi was cancelled, while a flight from Malaysia is expected to arrive in Amritsar on Monday. Police are investigating the incident.