Tan Son Nhat Airport resumes take-offs, landings after drone disruptions

A representative of Tan Son Nhat International Airport confirmed the resumption to Tuoi Tre (Youth) online newspaper on Tuesday night, saying flight operations had returned to normal after being temporarily disrupted by the drone sightings.

The disruptions affected some flights to and from the airport, with Vietnam Airlines saying several flights had to enter holding patterns or divert to alternate airports at the request of air traffic control authorities.

A Vietnam Airlines operations official told Tuoi Tre that a flight from Quy Nhon to Ho Chi Minh City had to circle in the air because of the drone incident. After holding for some time, the airline decided to divert the aircraft to Can Tho Airport to ensure safety, given that the flight had been planned for a relatively short route and its fuel had been calculated accordingly.

Several passengers on a flight from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh City also said their aircraft was diverted to Can Tho Airport, where they remained on board for around 45 minutes to an hour while waiting.

The airport's flight operations were suspended twice on Tuesday evening after pilots reported spotting drones near the airport.

According to a preliminary report, at 6:16 pm, the airport duty manager received information from the airport control tower that the crew of flight 3S621 from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi had spotted a drone.

The B777 aircraft, registered as DAALQ, took off from runway 25L at 6:14 pm. When the aircraft was at an altitude of around 1,800 feet, the crew detected a drone to its right, approximately 500 meters away.

Earlier, the crew of flight VJ601 from Cam Ranh to Ho Chi Minh City had also reported spotting a drone at an altitude of 3,000 feet. The flight landed on runway 25L at 5:38 pm.

At 6:28 pm, the control tower announced the suspension of all departing and arriving flights at Tan Son Nhat under its response plan for an airspace violation.

At that time, several flights were waiting to take off, while a number of arriving flights were also affected.

Tan Son Nhat International Airport immediately activated its UAV response plan. At 7:16 pm, the control tower and the Southern Airports Authority allowed take-offs and landings to resume normally.

However, at 7:40 pm, the control tower received another report from Center 3 about a UAV detected to the west-southwest of the airport. Take-offs and landings were suspended once again, and the UAV response plan was reactivated.

Representatives of Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet said the airlines we