On the evening of August 11, in an exchange with Lao Dong Newspaper, a representative of Tan Son Nhat International Airport (TIA) said that take-off and landing operations at the airport have been restored after the unit activated a response plan to the situation of UAVs (drones) entering the airport airspace.
According to TIA's preliminary report, at 6:16 PM on August 11, the Chief of Staff received information from the Command Tower about a B777-DAALQ aircraft, flight 3S621 Tan Son Nhat - Hanoi route, just taking off from runway 25L at 6:14 PM when it detected a drone on the right side of the aircraft, about 500 m away, at an altitude of about 1,800 ft.
Previously, at 5:34 PM, the Command Tower also received information from flight VJ601, Cam Ranh - Tan Son Nhat route, about the detection of a drone when the plane was approaching the airport. The aircraft landed on runway 25L at 5:38 PM, after detecting the drone about 10 miles away, at an altitude of 3,000 ft.
Faced with the above situation, at 6:28 pm, the command station announced the temporary suspension of flights to and from Tan Son Nhat according to the response plan when a static space violation occurs.
At the time of temporary suspension of operations, there were 7 outgoing flights waiting to take off including VJ805, VJ262, VN1186, VN609, VN218 and VN1374. On the arrival afternoon, flights SQ186, VJ853, VN1423, VN525, VJ489, VN7393, MH766 and BL6441 are also affected.
Tan Son Nhat International Airport has activated a UAV response plan, coordinating with relevant units to handle situations and ensure operational safety.
By 7:16 pm, the Southern Airport Authority and Command Station returned to normal operation of the runway.
However, at 7:40 pm, the command station continued to receive information from Center 3 about the detection of UAVs moving in the west-southwest direction. Faced with this development, take-off and landing operations at the airport continued to be suspended to ensure safety.
TIA then reactivated the UAV response plan and coordinated with functional units to monitor and handle the situation.
At 8:34 PM, Tan Son Nhat International Airport announced that it had restored normal take-off and landing operations.
