Drone disrupts air traffic into Newark
January 23, 2019
A drone briefly disrupted air traffic Tuesday at Newark airport, one of New York´s three major hubs for air traffic, US officials said.
There were no further drones sighted, and arrivals were allowed to resume after a short suspension, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman told AFP.
The FAA ordered a ground stop for other flights heading to Newark, however, until the "backlog" of arrivals landing at the airport were cleared.
"Around 5:00 pm, we received two reports from incoming flights into Newark that a drone was sighted at about 3,500 feet (1,070 meters) above Teterboro," another nearby airport in New Jersey, the spokesman added.
Drones have caused a growing number of flight disruptions in recent weeks. In December, London´s Gatwick airport was paralyzed for 36 hours after a drone sighting.
Europe´s busiest airport, Heathrow in London, was shut down for an hour on January 8 because of a drone incident.
US law bars drone pilots, unless they have special permits, from flying these aircraft above 400 feet (122 meters) and within 5 miles (8 km) of an airport.
Authorities who oversee the airports in New York said they said support the probe into the Newark drone incident.
