Singapore | Authorities probe drones at airport that disrupted 63 flights

Changi International Airport in Singapore

Drones buzzing around Singapore’s Changi Airport have caused 63 flights to be delayed or diverted in the past week, triggering an investigation and raising questions about the motives of the offenders.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore said yesterday that 18 flights at the airport were delayed and seven were diverted the night before “due to bad weather and unauthorized drone activities.”

It had earlier confirmed drones were seen flying near the airport last Tuesday and Wednesday. That caused the intermittent closure of a runway, delaying 37 flights and diverting one arriving plane to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“A multi-agency team including the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, Changi Airport Group, Singapore Armed Forces and the Singapore Police Force was activated for the search and locate operations,” the regulator added.

Investigations are ongoing. No details on the number of drones involved and the perpetrators have been provided by the authorities.

Shortly after news broke of the drone activity at the airport, Singapore’s defense ministry posted a photograph of a soldier pointing a jammer gun at a “rouge drone” on Facebook.

While the photo wasn’t taken at Changi, it hinted at the anti-drone technologies that may be used to track down offenders.

Drones are largely controlled by operators via a radio control link, on a frequency that’s similar to Wi-Fi.  A jammer gun temporarily disables this connection.

“In absence of a control link, most drones are designed to switch into ‘fail-safe’ mode, and may either attempt to return to its original location or immediately land,” said Foong Shaohui, an associate professor who researches unmanned systems at the Singapore University of Technology and Design.

“It would be possible to identify the operators by analyzing the information stored in the drone” such as pictures and flight data, he added.

Some observers said the incursions, which happened on two occasions and less than a week from each other, could signal the involvement of more sophisticated groups. AP