Airport disruption
Auckland Airport suspends operations after pilot drone report
Auckland · 06 Mar 2018 · event date · approximate location
A reported drone sighting led to a suspension of operations at Auckland Airport on 6 March 2018. An airline pilot alerted air traffic control; 1 News reported a suspension of at least 30 minutes and an arriving Air New Zealand flight diverting for refuelling. [1][2]
Drone presence is reported. The consequences are established. The operator is not established.
DroneLedger editorial team, publisher and editor responsible for this project.
AI-assisted editorial source review. This label records the editorial workflow, not a personal check of every source or sentence. Method and corrections
2 source families · a count of sources is not a verification score
AI-assisted editorial source review · 28 Oct 2026 · Dossier updated 28 Oct 2026
What do we know now?
A reported drone sighting led to a suspension of operations at Auckland Airport on 6 March 2018. An airline pilot alerted air traffic control; 1 News reported a suspension of at least 30 minutes and an arriving Air New Zealand flight diverting for refuelling. The pilots’ association issued a separate statement dated 6 March, displayed on a webpage headed 7 March, calling for registration and education of drone operators. It described 20 aircraft as affected by diversion. That wider advocacy-statement figure is not treated as a verified count of 20 off-airport landings or added to the separately described flight.
Facts at a glance
- Drone type
- No named drone type is recorded in this dossier.
- Effects
- According to 1news.co.nz, citing 1News / Air New Zealand, 1News reports at least a half-hour suspension
- According to nzalpa.org.nz, citing New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association, The association described 20 aircraft as affected by diversion, a broader measure than independently verified off-airport landings
- Who reported what
- 1news.co.nz: Assessment of drone involvement; reported outcome
- nzalpa.org.nz: Assessment of drone involvement; reported outcome
- Source families
- 2 source families are recorded; republication is not independent confirmation
Further details are not known from the cited sources.
Timeline
Three clocks, one reading line
Shared calendar-day axis, from left to right. Bars mark days or reporting windows, not durations. Publication and revision clocks are not event clocks. Missing clocks remain unknown; the table gives all available precision and source links. The plot follows recorded calendar dates; time zones may differ. It establishes neither within-day order nor causality.
| Track | Recorded date / time |
|---|---|
| 1 · Event |
|
| 2 · Source publication | |
| 3 · Dossier revisions |
What remains uncertain?
- Was a drone established? A published investigation or identification could resolve this.
- Who operated it, and why? An attributed investigation finding is missing.
Check the evidence
Source passage
- 1News / Air New Zealand · “suspend all operations for a minimum of 30 minutes” 1news.co.nz
- New Zealand police via NZALPA · “Police have reported that they do not have any current leads” nzalpa.org.nz
- Air New Zealand · “one of our Q300 pilots spotted the drone” 1news.co.nz
- New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association · “A drone that caused 20 aircraft to divert landing” nzalpa.org.nz
- Air New Zealand quoted by1News · “immediately alerted Air Traffic Control” 1news.co.nz
Claims and evidence
2 sources · 4 original statements
Sources that repeat the same original statement count once: a number of articles is not a number of independent confirmations.
| Claim | Original source | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Impact 1News reports at least a half-hour suspension. [1]Source passage“suspend all operations for a minimum of 30 minutes” Passage checked word for word against the source on 16 Oct 2026. | 1News / Air New Zealand via 1News | Supports the report Short literal passage read on the public source page; reported drone presence is not technical identification. |
| Attribution The association relayed that police had no current leads on the operator. [2]Source passage“Police have reported that they do not have any current leads” Passage checked word for word against the source on 16 Oct 2026. | New Zealand police via NZALPA via NZALPA | Context only Short literal passage read on the public source page; reported drone presence is not technical identification. |
| Drone The airline says a pilot reported a drone. [1]Source passage“one of our Q300 pilots spotted the drone” Passage checked word for word against the source on 16 Oct 2026. | Air New Zealand via 1News | Supports the report Short literal passage read on the public source page; reported drone presence is not technical identification. |
| Impact The association described 20 aircraft as affected by diversion, a broader measure than independently verified off-airport landings. [2]Source passage“A drone that caused 20 aircraft to divert landing” Passage checked word for word against the source on 28 Oct 2026. | New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association | Supports the report Checked against an immutable full source snapshot. Source wording supports this attributed statement; shared originals and limits are explained in the evidence section. |
| Context The airline’s account says its pilot alerted air traffic control. [1]Source passage“immediately alerted Air Traffic Control” Passage checked word for word against the source on 28 Oct 2026. | Air New Zealand quoted by1News via 1News | Supports the report Checked against an immutable full source snapshot. Source wording supports this attributed statement; shared originals and limits are explained in the evidence section. |
Source genealogy
Grouped by recorded original statement, not by publisher. Unmapped sources have unknown dependency; linked statements may also share an earlier origin. This is not an independence score.
- 1News / Air New Zealand / Air New Zealand
- 1News: Air New Zealand statement and diversion [1] · Relayed statement
- New Zealand police via NZALPA
- NZALPA: same-day pilot-association statement [2] · Relayed statement
- New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association
- NZALPA: same-day pilot-association statement [2] · Direct account
- Air New Zealand quoted by1News
- 1News: Air New Zealand statement and diversion [1] · Relayed statement
Show source graph
Left: publishers; right: recorded original statement. Converging lines show shared origin, not publication order. Dashed nodes have unknown dependency.
Read with a source omitted
Reading aid: switch off a source or family to inspect the remaining visible support below. Evidence status is not recalculated.
How to read this table
Reading aid only. Switch off a source or its recorded family to inspect the remaining visible support for exact claim texts. Evidence status is not recalculated. Shared wording or a shared family does not prove independence. Only recorded links labelled “supports” count here; context and contradiction links are not support. The dossier itself is unchanged.
| Claim | Supporting sources | Visible support |
|---|---|---|
| 1News reports at least a half-hour suspension. | [1] | Support remains visible |
| The association relayed that police had no current leads on the operator. | No supporting link recorded | No supporting link recorded |
| The airline says a pilot reported a drone. | [1] | Support remains visible |
| The association described 20 aircraft as affected by diversion, a broader measure than independently verified off-airport landings. | [2] | Support remains visible |
| The airline’s account says its pilot alerted air traffic control. | [1] | Support remains visible |
What we know
The cited airline coverage establishes a reported operational interruption of at least 30 minutes and one flight diverting for refuelling. The association described broader disruption and called for policy changes. The broader figure retains its attribution and is not converted into a precise verified loss or cancellation total.
1 News directly quotes Air New Zealand’s operational account. NZALPA is a distinct professional association with its own policy response, but it is still discussing the same reported pilot sighting and relaying police information. The sources independently contribute an airline response and a pilots’ association position; they are not two technical drone detections. The release date within the association text and the webpage posting date are distinguished rather than used to invent a new incident.
Data
- No structured detail recorded
- Hit / damaged · Fell near · Intercepted (claimed) · Human consequences
What remains unknown
The aircraft’s identity and operator, and the final outcome of any inquiry, are not established. The association’s 20-aircraft description does not specify a independently checked set of off-airport diversions. A reported threat and an advocacy call do not establish a collision or a change in law.
No operator or responsible organisation established by the reviewed sources.
How the story changed
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]
The pilots’ association issues a statement describing broader disruption and calling for operator registration and education; the page displays a 7 March posting heading. [2]
Original sources (2)
2 source families · a count of sources is not a verification score
11News: Air New Zealand statement and diversion06 Mar 2018 · source family: Tvnz2NZALPA: same-day pilot-association statement06 Mar 2018 · source family: NZALPAEditorial changes
- Revision 2 · 28 Oct 2026Editorial enrichment: add source-bound context, original reporting and dated follow-up; distinguish reported counts and scope from independent findings. Original event date and evidence statuses preserved.
- Revision 1 · 16 Oct 2026Curated dossier created after checking the cited sources line by line.
Cite this dossier
Chicago
DroneLedger editorial team. “Auckland Airport suspends operations after pilot drone report.” Dossier auckland-airport-drone-report-2018-03-06, revision 2, updated 28 Oct 2026. https://droneincidents.com/incident/auckland-airport-drone-report-2018-03-06/v2/
APA
DroneLedger editorial team. (28 Oct 2026). Auckland Airport suspends operations after pilot drone report (Dossier auckland-airport-drone-report-2018-03-06, revision 2). https://droneincidents.com/incident/auckland-airport-drone-report-2018-03-06/v2/
Cite the revision you used: later revisions may change evidence states.
Cite this version
- Maker
- DroneLedger editorial team
- ID
- auckland-airport-drone-report-2018-03-06
- Revision or edition
- 2
- Release
- 20261102T055221362217-c8d330
- Publication date
- 28 Oct 2026
- Accessed
- 09 Nov 2026
- Permanent URL
- https://droneincidents.com/incident/auckland-airport-drone-report-2018-03-06/v2/
- Hashed file
- JSON · SHA-256
77f0fcdcdad1935b2766c325436305a4e7fd9ce187623f2cf54c7903b9d3740e
Dataset DOI for this exact version: 10.5281/zenodo.23877662 · DOI binding manifest
Dataset DOI (series, not this revision): 10.5281/zenodo.23345422
DroneLedger editorial team. Auckland Airport suspends operations after pilot drone report. ID auckland-airport-drone-report-2018-03-06; revision or edition 2; release 20261102T055221362217-c8d330; published 28 Oct 2026. https://droneincidents.com/incident/auckland-airport-drone-report-2018-03-06/v2/ Accessed 09 Nov 2026. SHA-256 77f0fcdcdad1935b2766c325436305a4e7fd9ce187623f2cf54c7903b9d3740e (https://droneincidents.com/data/citations/incident/auckland-airport-drone-report-2018-03-06/r2/77f0fcdcdad1935b2766c325436305a4e7fd9ce187623f2cf54c7903b9d3740e/data.json). Exact archived dataset version: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23877662.
Citation uses the English reference edition. Access date is the UTC date when this page was built; change it to your consultation date when reusing the citation.
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