Editorial pack · DroneLedger
Auckland Airport suspends operations after pilot drone report
Current state
Operations at Auckland Airport were suspended for at least half an hour on 6 March 2018 after an airline pilot reported a drone. An arriving Air New Zealand flight diverted for refuelling.
Evidence states
| Drone presence | reported · sources [1], [2] |
|---|---|
| Impact | confirmed · sources [1], [2] |
| Attribution | none · sources none |
1News reports a suspension of at least 30 minutes and a flight diverted for refuelling. NZALPA separately describes wider disruption but its figure for affected aircraft is not treated as a verified count of off-airport diversions.
1News directly quotes the airline’s operational account; the pilots’ association issued its own same-day statement and relayed police information. Both ultimately concern the same reported pilot sighting, so they do not establish two independent technical detections.
Claims
2 sources · 2 original statements. Sources that repeat the same statement count once.
| Claim and source passage | Original source | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| 1News reports at least a half-hour suspension. “suspend all operations for a minimum of 30 minutes” [1] | 1News / Air New Zealand (relayed) | supports: Short literal passage read on the public source page; reported drone presence is not technical identification. |
| The association relayed that police had no current leads on the operator. “Police have reported that they do not have any current leads” [2] | New Zealand police via NZALPA (relayed) | context: Short literal passage read on the public source page; reported drone presence is not technical identification. |
| The airline says a pilot reported a drone. “one of our Q300 pilots spotted the drone” [1] | Air New Zealand (relayed) | supports: Short literal passage read on the public source page; reported drone presence is not technical identification. |
Earlier matching archive records
Published archive records only, not all real-world incidents or a common cause.
30 days: 0
90 days: 0
As of: 2026-10-16T02:26:41+00:00
Not established
No collision, verified device model or operator is established. NZALPA places the report shortly before noon while 1News calls it morning; the event date is the same local day. The association’s wording about 20 aircraft differs in scope from 1News’s one documented diversion; no combined total asserted. This is distinct from later Auckland reports in March and April 2018. Diversion destinations do not change the event place.
No operator or responsible organisation established by the reviewed sources.
Chronology
- 06 Mar 2018: Operations at Auckland Airport were suspended for at least half an hour on 6 March 2018 after an airline pilot reported a drone. An arriving Air New Zealand flight diverted for refuelling. [1]
Sources
- 1News: Air New Zealand statement and diversion (2018-03-06, source family: tvnz)
https://www.1news.co.nz/2018/03/06/air-nz-flight-forced-to-divert-to-ohakea-air-force-base-due-to-rogue-drone-sighting-near-auckland-airport/ - NZALPA: same-day pilot-association statement (2018-03-06, source family: nzalpa)
https://www.nzalpa.org.nz/Comms/Media-Releases/drone-incident-at-akl-airport-nzalpa-calls-again-for-registrationlicencing-of-operators
How to cite
DroneLedger. “Auckland Airport suspends operations after pilot drone report.” Dossier auckland-airport-drone-report-2018-03-06, revision 1, updated 16 Oct 2026. https://droneincidents.com/incident/auckland-airport-drone-report-2018-03-06/v1/
Editorial changes
- Revision 1 (2026-10-16): Curated dossier created after checking the cited sources line by line.
Evidence states: confirmed = established by the cited evidence; reported = stated by a source, not independently established; inconclusive; debunked; unknown. A claim by a party to a conflict remains a claim. Methodology: https://droneincidents.com/methodology/