Vietnam's busiest airport Tan Son Nhat halts all flights for 2 hours after drone intrusion

Flights to and from Tan Son Nhat International Airport were grounded or diverted on Tuesday evening after drones intruded into the airspace over Vietnam's busiest airport. Two rounds of unauthorized drone activity were detected in the airspace managed by the airport in Ho Chi Minh City at 6:15 p.m., an airport representative said.The airport then suspended all takeoffs and landings for two hours, affecting 22 flights by Vietnam Airlines, Sun PhuQuoc Airways, Pacific Airlines and Viettravel Airlines. Vietnam Airlines flight VN1467 bound for Tan Son Nhat Airport waits on the ground at Can Tho Airport on Aug. 11, 2026. Photo by Ha Giang Vietnam Airlines said at least 12 of its flights had to wait or divert to other airports, unable to reach Tan Son Nhat, while its flights from HCMC could not take off.Can Tho Airport, more than 150 away in the Mekong Delta, had temporarily taken in several flights due to land in HCMC that evening, an official there said.A delay notice was issued by 8 p.m. for many flights from Pleiku, Chu Lai, Hai Phong, Cam Ranh, Hanoi and Quy Nhon, which were scheduled to land at Tan Son Nhat from 6:40 to 8:35 p.m.The airport resumed landing and departure services from 8:34 p.m. Passengers wait at the domestic terminal T1 at Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCMC at 8:45 p.m. on Aug. 11, 2026. Photo by VnExpress/Tuan Viet Recently, numerous incidents involving flying objects near airports have disrupted aviation operations.On June 6, the crew of a Hanoi-Cam Ranh flight spotted an unmanned aircraft near Noi Bai Airport. Departures stopped for nearly an hour, delaying 16 flights.On the evening of March 15, an object believed to be a drone appeared near the landing approach at Cat Bi Airport in Hai Phong. Four flights diverted to Noi Bai, and operations did not return to normal for about four hours, until after midnight.The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam recorded repeated UAV incursions into Da Nang's takeoff and landing airspace between September 2025 and February 2026, at distances of three to 12 nautical miles and altitudes of 1,000 to 3,800 feet.During the Lunar New Year holiday in February, 54 aircraft were forced to hold or alter their approach.Regulations bar drones outright within 8 km of an airport.Under procedures the aviation authority revised in March, an airport can return to normal operations once 60 minutes pass with no further detection.UAVs inside active flight areas can force aircraft into holding patterns, change takeoff and landing procedures, or send them to alternate airports, the authority says. It rates a collision between a drone and an aircraft as a direct threat to aviation safety.Tan Son Nhat handled more than 42.4 million passengers on 255,376 flights in 2025, the most of any airport in Vietnam. Traffic there peaked at over 177,000 passengers on 1,069 flights on Feb. 22 this year, the busiest day in the airport's history.