Imphal Airport on high alert after small-sized drone detected in airspace

IMPHAL: Imphal Airport was put on high alert after a small-sized drone was spotted by security personnel on Sunday afternoon, sources said.

According to sources, the drone was spotted by a security personnel at 3 pm thereafter alert was issued.

"An alert was also issued to other agencies at the airport and operations were postponed till security clearance," sources said.

Three flights were affected due to the security clearance and flight operations later resumed at 5.30 pm.

In this regard, the Eastern Command of the Indian Air Force said that it activated its Air Defence response mechanism.

In a post on X, Eastern Command said, "IAF activated its Air Defence response mechanism based on visual inputs from Imphal airport.

The small object was not seen thereafter." A passenger named M Pramod who was travelling to Chandigarh said that his flight was delayed.

"I had to move to Chandigarh but our flight was delayed due to some reason. Now we will move to Chandigarh tomorrow after on a re-issued ticket," he said.

All incoming and outgoing flights were delayed after a UAV drone was found hovering around Bir Tikendrajit Imphal International Airport.