Palma airport is operating normally on Monday after a drone was sighted on Sunday, forcing it to suspend operations for just over half an hour. The incident took place on Sunday, when the sighting of a drone forced operations at Son Sant Joan to be temporarily suspended. Sources at airport authority Aena said that arrivals were halted for at least 35 minutes and that, after carrying out safety checks, the airport is now operating normally. The incident forced certain aircraft to wait or divert to other destinations.
According to Aena sources, eight flights bound for Son Sant Joan were diverted due to the sighting of the drone. Upon learning of the incident, the National Police deployed their own drone to try to locate the one that caused the interruption in operations, but without success. Police sources have indicated that an investigation has been opened to try to clarify how the events occurred.
The officers, they said, will try to determine where the unidentified drone entered and who was operating it. Jonny Greenall, Chief Pilot and Founder of Balearic Helicopters, was due to land at Palma at 19.40 on Sunday but his flight from Barcelona spent 30 minutes circling the airport for 30 minutes while the drone incident was dealt with.
Earlier this month at least three planes were turned away at Fuerteventura Airport in the Canary Islands, according to reports, drones flying near the airport - which connects to more than 80 destinations - meant the flights couldn’t land. and top level talks have been taking place about protecting European airspace with some airlines worried that mounting drone incursions could cause widespread flight chaos across the region.
European Union leaders in Copenhagen have since discussed a “drone wall” to protect the continent from Russian drones, just days after airspace intrusions by unidentified unmanned aircraft closed Danish airports. Many of the leaders have accused Russia of brazen violations of European airspace with recent incursions by drones over Poland and fighter jets over Estonia.
“Russia will continue and we have to be ready, we have to strengthen our preparedness,” Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said as he voiced his support for a drone wall – a network of sensors and weapons to detect, track and neutralise intruding unmanned aircraft. Denmark has stopped short of saying who it believes is responsible for the incidents in its airspace which disrupted air traffic at multiple airports, but Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has suggested it could be Moscow.
“It is the pattern we need to observe, and in my view that pattern is essentially a hybrid war against Europe, and that is what we need to respond to,” Frederiksen told reporters. The meeting was also the first opportunity for leaders of the EU’s 27 countries to debate a proposal to use Russian assets frozen in Europe to fund a major loan to Ukraine. As they arrived at the summit, some leaders voiced strong support for the idea while others were more cautious. The Kremlin condemned the proposal as “pure theft”.
Russia has denied responsibility for the drones over Denmark, disputed that its fighter jets entered Estonian airspace and said it did not intend to send drones into Poland. But the incidents prompted European leaders to step up calls to bolster the continent’s defences and boost support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion. U.S. President Donald Trump has demanded the EU take more responsibility on both fronts.
The drones that flew over Denmark “show we need pre-alert systems, and we need to cooperate,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in Copenhagen. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen raised the idea of a drone wall last month, after some 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace, although officials say it had been being worked on before then. “What I see overall ... is a pattern. And this pattern is coming from Russia,” von der Leyen said on Wednesday.
“Russia tries to test us. But Russia also tries to sow division and anxiety in our societies. We will not let this happen,” she said. The Commission, the EU’s executive body, has not yet produced a detailed plan for the drone wall, leaving open questions about the cost and practicalities. But NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praised the idea as “timely and necessary”.
The incursion into Poland exposed gaps in Europe’s ability to defend against drones, officials and analysts said. NATO forces deployed fighter jets, helicopters and a Patriot air defence system in their response, shooting down several drones. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov criticised European plans for a drone wall. “As history has shown, erecting walls is always a bad thing,” Peskov told reporters.