Investigation under way after drone seized near Dublin Airport

The drone detection system deployed at Dublin Airport tracked a device flying illegally near the north Dublin complex on Saturday night and a person was subsequently detained by airport police.

The drone activity saw the airport’s north runway closed briefly at about 9pm with inbound and outbound flights diverted to the south runway instead.

“Dublin Airport’s drone detection system identified the use of a drone close to the north runway just before 9pm on Saturday evening,” a spokesman for DAA, the authority which manages Dublin and Cork Airports, said on Sunday afternoon.

“Operations on the north runway, which was open for departures at the time, were immediately suspended, with all operations switching to our south runway, ensuring flights could continue to take off and land,” he said.

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“Airport police responded immediately to the incursion and caught the user and the drone within minutes before handing the individual over to An Garda Síochána.”

He said no flights were impacted by the incident. “DAA reminds the public that it is illegal to operate a drone without permission within 5km of Dublin Airport.”

A Garda spokesman said the drone had been seized and the matter remained under investigation. No arrests were made.

The problem of illegal drone activity at Dublin Airport has intensified in recent years with multiple drone incursions disrupting flights and delaying thousands of passengers last year.

At one point Ryanair expressed grave concern of the regularity with which it had to divert incoming flights and delay outbound ones and pointed out that airport traffic had to be suspended six times in six weeks due to drone disruption.

As the problems deepened the DAA invested in new equipment and was granted the approval to deploy it from the communications regulator, ComReg, last summer.

The disruption occurred despite the fact that Ireland was one of the first countries in Europe to legislate for drone use with the law intended to specifically address the safety challenges posed by the airborne devices.

Under the legislation introduced in 2015, a drone cannot operate within 5km 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 120m or more than 300m from its operator.

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