Drone disrupts Alicante airport as police intervene; flights diverted

(ALICANTE (ALICANTE-ELCHE MIGUEL HERNÁNDEZ AIRPORT)) Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport was shut down for two hours on the evening of October 27, 2025 after a drone sighting over the terminal triggered an immediate security response, halting all air traffic and sending police and specialist aerial units across the airfield. Authorities suspended all departures and arrivals from shortly before 9 p.m. local time until approximately 11 p.m., with at least ten international flights diverted and around 1,000 passengers left stranded as crews and controllers worked to protect the airspace and clear the threat.

The abrupt closure hit a busy corridor on Spain’s eastern coast and rippled through routes linking the airport to major European cities. AENA, the company that manages Spain’s airports and air navigation, said diversions were underway and urged travelers to seek updates from their airlines. “Due to the presence of a drone in the vicinity of Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport, flight diversions are taking place. We are working with law enforcement agencies to return operations to normal as quickly as possible. Check your flight status with your airline,” AENA stated. Local aviation officials confirmed that disruptions would likely last until 11 p.m., and the airport gradually restarted operations after the two-hour shutdown.

Police moved quickly once the drone was detected over Alicante-Elche, deploying a specialist aerial unit from the Spanish Civil Guard and National Police to identify and neutralize the device. Officers used the “AeroScope” system, a detection and tracking technology designed to locate unauthorized drones and their operators inside controlled airspace, to sweep the airport perimeter and the urban fringes nearby. The operation ran alongside air traffic control measures to keep the runway and approach paths free of risk while aircraft were held in patterns or turned away to alternate airports along Spain’s Mediterranean arc.

As controllers halted movements at Alicante-Elche, flights diverted to Valencia, Murcia, Barcelona, and Palma de Mallorca. Ten flights were rerouted during the closure window, according to operational summaries: Transavia’s TRA6145 from Amsterdam-Schiphol; Ryanair’s RYR4696 from Lanzarote; Jet2.com’s EXS881 from Manchester; Ryanair’s RYR6366 from Krakow; easyJet UK’s EZY3357 from Liverpool; Ryanair’s RYR4027 from Manchester; Ryanair’s RYR6647 from London Stansted; Ryanair’s RYR4080 from Newcastle; Ryanair’s RYR2663 from Frankfurt-Hahn; and Vueling’s VY8322 from Paris-Orly. Ground crews at the alternates rushed to accommodate the extra arrivals, while airlines worked flight-by-flight to reassign gates and plan fuel and crew-hour adjustments so that planes could return to Alicante-Elche once the airspace reopened.

Inside the terminal, boards stacked up with delay notices as the closure stretched toward the two-hour mark. Families with children, elderly travelers returning from holidays, and late-evening business passengers clustered at airline desks and information points while announcements repeated the same instruction: wait for the all-clear and check with your carrier for revised times. Airport staff handed out water in some waiting areas as lines deepened at customer service counters. No flights were canceled during the incident, officials said, but delays expanded across arrivals and departures serving Amsterdam, Liverpool, Manchester, and London Stansted, with some aircraft set to land past midnight once the backlog began to clear.

The core of the disruption was a single, unauthorized drone. Police did not immediately identify the operator or the device model, and as of October 28 authorities said the investigation was ongoing. Investigators were reviewing radar feeds, AeroScope logs, and any public tips to pinpoint where the drone launched and who controlled it. The Spanish National Aviation Safety Agency (AESA) classifies drone use in controlled airspace without authorization as a very serious violation. Under Spanish law and AESA guidance, offenders face fines of up to €225,000 and may also incur criminal liability depending on the circumstances and risks created for aircraft in flight. AESA publishes detailed rules for drone operations and restricted zones on its official portal, the Spanish Aviation Safety Agency (AESA) guidance on drone operations.

The timing of the shutdown magnified the disruption. Shortly before 9 p.m., Alicante-Elche typically handles a mix of inbound flights from northern Europe and outbound departures bearing holidaymakers back to the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. When the order came to halt operations, pilots waiting for takeoff returned to stands and incoming flights were held in holding patterns before being rerouted to nearby fields. For Alicante-Elche’s control tower, the immediate priority was to remove any risk of a drone-aircraft conflict — even a small drone can cause damage to an engine or windshield — and then to set a predictable timeline for normal operations to resume.

Aena’s instruction to travelers to verify schedules with airlines reflected how flight-by-flight decisions governed the recovery. Crews that had reached legal duty-time limits needed relief, and planes landing at alternate airports required time to refuel and secure new slots. Passengers arriving in Valencia and Palma de Mallorca needed buses or rebooked seats to reach their original destination, while those departing Alicante-Elche waited for their aircraft to return and for ground handlers to reset the evening wave. For some travelers, the disruption meant missing last train connections inland, and for families returning from Lanzarote and Manchester the additional detours stretched a three-hour trip into a five- or six-hour journey.

While the scene tested patience in Alicante-Elche’s halls, the closure passed without injuries or accidents, according to police and airport officials. That safety outcome is precisely why authorities enforce a zero-tolerance approach to drones near airports. The “AeroScope” sweeps and the visible presence of the Civil Guard and National Police underscored a broader deterrent strategy that Spanish airport authorities have emphasized after a run of drone-related incidents this season. In recent weeks, Palma de Mallorca and Fuerteventura have also reported drone incursions that forced short-term restrictions or diversions, reflecting a pattern that has put Europe’s busy holiday gateways on alert.

The episode also landed in a record-breaking autumn for the airport. Alicante-Elche set a new monthly high in September 2025, handling more than 1.9 million passengers, a flow driven largely by routes from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. That momentum has kept terminals and runways busy well into October, raising the stakes whenever airspace restrictions or technical outages strike. Monday night’s shutdown offered a sharp illustration: when an airport of this size pauses, even briefly, pressure builds quickly across carriers’ evening rotations and spills into the next morning’s first flights.

For airlines, the list of diversions captured how wide the knock-on effects ran. Carriers ranging from low-cost leaders to leisure specialists had aircraft pulled off their planned paths: Transavia from Amsterdam-Schiphol; Ryanair from Lanzarote, Krakow, Manchester, London Stansted, Newcastle, and Frankfurt-Hahn; Jet2.com from Manchester; easyJet UK from Liverpool; and Vueling from Paris-Orly. Each diversion means unplanned fuel, ground handling, and crew costs, and a fresh layer of coordination to recover aircraft positions so Tuesday’s schedules can hold. As a practical matter, it also means passengers on connecting itineraries face a scramble to rebook, while those on point-to-point tickets wait for their original planes to return.

By about 11 p.m., Alicante-Elche began accepting arrivals again, with tower controllers sequencing planes backed up at alternates and starting to work through the queue of delayed departures. Baggage belts restarted, taxi queues reformed, and airline staff reopened boarding as the airfield returned to normal control. The overnight hours allowed some of the backlog to clear, though lingering delays were expected on early morning services as crews reached rest limits and operators rebalanced aircraft.

The investigation now focuses on tracing the drone’s signal path and identifying the operator. Officials have not said whether the device was flown deliberately over the terminal or drifted into the restricted zone, but the legal lines are clear in Spain: uncontrolled airspace does not extend over airports, and drones cannot operate there without explicit authorization. AESA’s penalties are intended to deter risky flights that can force exactly what happened at Alicante-Elche — flights diverted, passengers stranded, and a major airport pressed into emergency mode to protect passengers and crews.

For travelers caught up in the disruption, the sight of squad cars, flashing lights, and a shut runway at a major Mediterranean gateway was a reminder of how even small devices can upend a carefully choreographed airfield. Alicante-Elche’s operators and police moved quickly to shut down and restart operations in the space of two hours, but the cost in time, missed connections, and late-night arrivals was felt across hundreds of households heading home from holidays or starting journeys for work. The penalties for unauthorized drone flights are steep, the enforcement tools have grown more sophisticated, and the message from authorities after Monday night is that even a single device can bring a runway to a halt.

Officials said security will remain heightened while the inquiry continues. The airport is operating normally, but patrols and AeroScope monitoring have been reinforced around approaches and terminal perimeters. AENA has asked passengers to keep checking their flight status with airlines in case of residual delays and to arrive with extra time while screening lines settle back into their usual rhythm. The hope is that the next time Alicante-Elche makes headlines, it is for new routes and record passenger figures, not for the kind of drone sighting that turned a busy evening of travel into hours of waiting and a flurry of diverted flights.