Drone reported near plane descending in Dublin Airport

A suspected drone was reported flying very close to a plane descending into Dublin Airport last night.

It is the second reported sighting of a drone by a pilot approaching the capital in less than a fortnight but it is understood that this sighting has not raised the same level of concern as the previous report.

The Aer Lingus pilot reported seeing a suspected drone flying very close to the aircraft, when it was 3,200 feet over Dublin Bay, close to Howth.

He described it as red in colour and said that it was about 20 metres on the plane's port side.

The incident was reported to AirNav, the body who run the air traffic control in Irish airspace, who said it had reported the sighting to gardaí and other appropriate authorities for assessment and investigation, as it says, is standard procedure.

A Garda investigation into the report is under way and Aer Lingus said it is aware of the sighting.

Aviation sources say if the sighting was a drone, its proximity to the aircraft would pose a significant risk to its safety.

It is understood that at the height the plane was flying, the sighting could have been caused by a recreational drone user but they would have been operating the device significantly above permitted limits.

In the exchange with Dublin's Air Traffic control just after 6.15pm yesterday evening the pilot said: "We think we just passed a drone in our present position, 3,200 feet, red in colour."

The air traffic controller then said he will pass the information on, before he was heard alerting another plane on the same track to the possible presence of the drone.

He asked this pilot if he was happy to continue and the pilot said he was, saying "we'll keep an eye out".

The original pilot then told the Air traffic controller "that was just about 20 metres off our portside".

A few minutes later air traffic control informed another plane of the reported sighting but said of the original sighting "another shamrock did go behind him and saw nothing".

He gave this plane the option of taking another approach route and it opted to divert to this route.

He later told another pilot that four planes have followed the same route where the drone was sighted but have not reported any issues.