Alex Trelinski
A PARAGLIDER illegally flew over Palma de Mallorca airport on Sunday, forcing four planes to be diverted and schedules to be disrupted throughout the afternoon.
The Guardia Civil are trying to find the offender who could be fined as much as €250,000 for the intrusion.
The last time a ‘foreign’ object caused problems at Palma was a drone in 2019.
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Air traffic was suspended for 15 minutes after the paraglider was sighted in protected airspace at 1pm.
Flights from Bremen, Paris and Zaragoza were diverted to Mahon airport on Menorca, and a service from Madrid ended up in Ibiza.
An extensive operation was launched to find the transgressor who is believed to have landed in the s’ Aranjassa area.
There was no sign anywhere of the paraglider chute.
One theory is that it entered the exclusion zone by accident due to a strong gust of wind.
Nevertheless, the glider owner will face a sanction, once he or she is found.
