Flight operations at Delhi airport briefly halted over drone sighting

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New Delhi: The flight operations at the Delhi airport was temporarily halted on Sunday evening after an Air Asia pilot reported sighting a drone-like flying object.

However, it was for a brief period and flights resumed soon after.

A team of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the Delhi Police and the aviation security were rushed to the spot, as per ANI.

Sanjay Bhatia, Deputy Commissioner of Police at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, said the pilot who was flying from Goa to Delhi reported having seen the object near Dwarka area adjoining the airport around 7.10 pm.

"In this regard, operations at all the three runways were closed as a precautionary measure. At about 7.55 pm, the operations at the three runways resumed normally after clearance from Delhi Police," Bhatia said, reported IANS.

On the other hand, the airline issued a statement saying, "AirAsia India confirms pilots of flight i5 799 spotted unidentified object flying close to aircraft while landing at IGI, Delhi. Pilots followed normal procedure,carried out uneventful landing. Upon landing, pilot reported incident to Air Traffic Controller."

"Pilot informed airline’s Director Flight Ops and Head of Corporate and Flight Safety upon landing. Filed a report with the DGCA," it added.

(With Agency inputs)