Amritsar: A security alert was triggered at Sri Guru Ram Das Ji International Airport in Amritsar on Sunday night after two to four suspected drones or drone-like flying objects were spotted within the airport’s operational area. Airport Director Anirudh Kumar Sharma, in an interview to ANI, said: “Airport operations were suspended from around 9:50pm to 11:15pm after drones were spotted across the airfield.”
“At approximately 9:45pm, the Air Traffic Control (ATC) unit received a report from the Indian Air Force stating that drones had been spotted across the airfield. By that time, several aircraft scheduled to land in Amritsar were already circling overhead. Following our Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for drone sightings, a Joint Action Committee was activated and assembled in the control tower. They determined that the drone activity could disrupt scheduled landings, so the decision was made to close the airfield for operations. Airport operations were suspended around 9:50pm,” he added.
“In the meantime, we had to divert aircraft that were holding overhead; there were approximately seven such aircraft. Two flights were diverted to Chandigarh, and five were diverted to Delhi,” he said.
The Joint Action Committee assessed that the situation was under control and—since there was no further drone activity after 11pm, the authorities decided to resume normal operations.
“We declared operations open starting at 23:15 hours. Subsequently, the flights began returning. Of the seven diverted flights, five returned; one Air India flight that had gone to Delhi was cancelled, and the Malaysia flight is expected to arrive on Monday. Everything has returned to normal. As for the investigation, that matter is being handled by the police,” he said.
The objects were reportedly noticed near the runway after approaching from the direction of Rajala village. According to preliminary information, they remained visible over the runway and other sensitive parts of the airport for several minutes.