BREAKING: Tan Son Nhat Airport suspends take-offs, landings twice after drones spotted

Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City suspended take-offs and landings twice on Tuesday evening after pilots reported spotting drones flying near aircraft operating areas.

A leader of Tan Son Nhat International Airport confirmed the incident to Tuoi Tre (Youth) online newspaper on Tuesday night, saying the airport had activated its UAV response plan to ensure the safety of all flights.

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 sighting 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 the airport's response plan for an airspace violation.

At that time, seven flights were waiting to take off, including VJ805, VJ262, VN1186, VN609, VN218, and VN1374. However, the flight list provided by the airport currently contains only six flight numbers.

The affected arriving flights included SQ186, VJ853, VN1423, VN525, VJ489, VN7393, MH766, and BL6441.

Tan Son Nhat International Airport immediately activated its UAV response plan. At 7:16 pm, the control tower and the Southern Airports Authority gave permission for 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 were closely monitoring the situation, underlining that flight safety remained their top priority.