The hunt is on for the person or persons responsible for flying a drone into Malta International Airport airspace, causing a disruption and leading to one entire runway being shut down.

The incident happened earlier today at around 12:15pm, with reports of a drone flying around the area leading to air controllers shutting down an entire runway. It is being reported the drone had interfered with a pilot as the pilot was attempting to make a landing, disrupting the manoeuvre.

Now, police officers and members of the Armed Forces of Malta are on site in Luqa, searching the area for the person(s) or any leads on who may be behind the drone disruption.

TVM is reporting that initial information is indicating the drone was being flown from the Bir?ebbu?a area.

The runway was re-opened around 30 minutes after being shut down, and no flights had to be cancelled due to the disruption

A similar situation, albeit on a much larger scale, happened at England’s Gatwick airport two months ago, with 140,000 people being impacted by cancelled flights over three days as the British army was called in for assistance.

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Johnathan Cilia

Johnathan is an award-winning Maltese journalist interested in social justice, politics, minority issues, music and food. Follow him at @supreofficialmt on Instagram, and send him news, food and music stories at [email protected]