---
title: "Drones Just Shut Down Another Huge Airport"
description: "Dubai International Airport faced a 30-minute shutdown after a drone was spotted nearby, It's the third major airport to face recent drone-related delays."
date: "2019-02-15"
modified: "2019-02-15"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski.md"
url: "https://futurism.com/drones-shut-down-airport"
categories:
  - "Drones"
  - "Robotics"
  - "Robots and Machines"
tags:
  - "airports"
  - "drones"
  - "transport"
---

# Drones Just Shut Down Another Huge Airport

![Dubai International Airport faced a 30-minute shutdown after a drone was spotted nearby, It's the third major airport to face recent drone-related delays.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/drones-shut-down-airport.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Umair Shaikh/Tag Hartman-Simkins\</em\>*

## Brief Delays

A drone sighting has once again shut down a major airport while officials scrambled to figure out what was going on.

This time, the airport in question was Dubai International Airport, one of the largest international airports in the world. After a drone was spotted nearby, the airport suspended all flight activity between 10:13 and 10:45 a.m. local time, [according to *The Wall Street Journal*](<https://www.wsj.com/articles/drones-strike-again-grounding-flights-at-dubai-airport-11550220014?mod=hp_lead_pos4&ns=prod/accounts-wsj>).

https://twitter.com/DXBMediaOffice/status/1096320854168875009

## Some Guy

A Dubai official told *The WSJ* that the drone was operated by "a guy in the desert" but didn't share many more details.

The half hour delay is the shortest of three major drone-related airport shutdowns in recent months, but still signals that airports haven't figured out how to deal with the proliferation of inexpensive drones.

Back in December, London's Gatwick airport [canceled about 1,000 flights](<https://futurism.com/drone-gatwick-chaos-lasers-jamming-guns.md>) over a three-day period, and New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport was briefly shut down in January when a drone was spotted over the nearby airport in Teterboro.

## Sound the Alarm

Operating a drone without a license in Dubai is illegal, and similar laws have been enacted by the U.S. government.

But apparently all it takes is one guy in the desert to interrupt the world's largest international airport. So in the meantime, *[Fortune reports](<http://fortune.com/2019/02/15/dubai-airport-disrupted-drone/>)*, airports like Gatwick are running drills to minimize delays and interruptions next time a drone sails by.

**READ MORE:** [Drone Scare Grounds Flights at Dubai Airport](<https://www.wsj.com/articles/drones-strike-again-grounding-flights-at-dubai-airport-11550220014?mod=hp_lead_pos4&ns=prod/accounts-wsj>) \[*The Wall Street Journal*\]

***More on drones: New FAA Rules Could Make Drones Vastly More Annoying***

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)

## More

- [We Have No Idea How to Deal With Unexpected Drones at Airports](<https://futurism.com/drone-gatwick-chaos-lasers-jamming-guns.md>)
- [Someone Is Terrorizing People By Peering In Windows With a Drone](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/terrorizing-people-peering-windows-drone.md>)
- [Airport Jetpack Sighting May Have Actually Been Person-Shaped Drone](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/airport-jetpack-sighting-person-shaped-drone.md>)
- [You Are Not Prepared for What Actually Shut Down the El Paso Airport This Morning, But Let’s Just Say It Involves a Military Mega-Laser Shooting Something Down](<https://futurism.com/science-energy/airport-laser-pentagon-trump.md>)
- [You Can Now Navigate a US Airport Terminal Using Just Your Face as ID](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/airport-delta-facial-recognition.md>)
- [Someone Just Used a Drone to Try to Assassinate a World Leader](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/drone-assassination-attempt-venezuela.md>)
- [Video Claims to Show Person Flying Jetpack Near Airport](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/jetpack-video-airport.md>)
- [Bezos’ Huge New Rocket Launch Shut Down Minutes Before Liftoff](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/bezos-huge-rocket-launch-scrubbed.md>)