Simon Hunter
THE SIGHTING of a drone at the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport caused flight delays on Sunday morning, at a time when many weekend return flights were arriving in or taking off from the Spanish capital.
Spain’s airports authority Aena said in a tweet that their protocols for such an incident were put into place for around an hour before lunchtime, but had been deactivated by around 3pm.
Sources from the National Police confirmed to online daily El Confidencial that a pilot had spotted the drone over the 32-R runway. No aircraft had to be diverted to other airports, but they were forced to use a different runway.
The same sources confirmed that the drone was not brought down by the authorities, and that no arrests had been made.
As well as landings, a number of take-offs were also delayed by the incident at Madrid’s main airport.
Passengers took to social media to complain about disruption to their flights, to destinations such as Seville, Jerez and San Sebastian.
The use of drones is not permitted within an eight kilometre perimeter of Spanish airports, according to radio network Cadena SER. Fines for breaking these rules can run as high as €225,000.
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