Reports of drones result in cancelled planes at Jersey airport.

[purpleivan]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqkgl4nmp8lyo

People at Jersey Airport have said they are frustrated and angry that "unauthorised drone" activity caused more flight cancellations for a second night in a row.

At 20:05 on Saturday Jersey Airport said it was "experiencing disruption.... affecting inbound flights as a result of further drone activity in the vicinity of the airfield".
States of Jersey Police are investigating the incidents and officers have appealed to anyone with information about who is responsible to come forward.
Insp Rob McCallum said it was believed "two or three" drones had entered the restricted airspace, but they were not thought to be linked to terrorism.

Separate reporting can be found here.
https://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/...ts-spark-major-operation-near-jersey-airport/

Police are appealing for witnesses after the reported activity within restricted airspace and active flight paths caused significant disruption to airport operations and passengers.
The first report came at around 8.20pm, with further drone activity reported until approximately 10.30pm.

I don't have access to historical ADSB data and there is very little information to go on about the drone reports themselves (no videos that I could find), so not much to look into currently, as to what might be misreported as drones, but there is some information regarding time. 8:20pm - 10:30pm on Friday 30th October, 2026, according to the Jersey Evening Post and at 8:05pm Saturday 31st October, 2026, according to the BBC. Time was the same as GMT for both nights.

It may be relevant that these reports occurred on the first Friday and Saturday evenings after the clocks went back in the UK, by one hour (from British Summer Time to GMT), plus with Halloween the on Saturday there would be numerous parties, and other events, as well as fireworks events which are fairly common this weekend, due to Guy Fawkes (bonfire night) being only a few days away on the 5th November. Due to this, more people would likely be outside on those evenings than typical at this time of year, on a night which is darker (judged by the time on the clock) than the previous weekend.

Additionally, the weather was clear those evenings, allowing for easier sighting of distant planes and astronomical objects, potentially being misreported as drones. The previous weekend was partially cloudy with rain, so a contrast to the conditions for those out and about on weekend activities, for that weekend, compared with the Friday and Saturday of the nights of the drone reports.

The weather for those nights can be found here.
https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/@6619950/historic

There's plenty of air traffic nearby, with flights from airports around London, to Spain and Portugal, plus some transatlantic traffic between North American and Europe, passing close by, or over, the island of Jersey.

No mention in the reporting I've seen so far, as to whether the reports of drones were eyewitness statements only, or included videos, or radar.

Edit: Adding a comment to say it's just occurred to me, that the clocks going back in the UK a few days before the drone reports, probably has no relevance, as it would have been dark before 8pm both before and after the change.

 

[Trailblazer]

The first sighting was supposedly at 8.20pm, which by coincidence is exactly when a high-altitude easyJet flight passed directly over Jersey airport. Several other planes followed this same flight path over the next couple of hours. Friday was also the first very clear night for a while in the Channel Islands.

 

[Trailblazer]

Sitch with that easyJet flight viewed from the airport at 8.15pm: it appears as a hovering flashing light, very slowly rising vertically upwards.

https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?cu...01_093415_9ba6ce62c51a092ffac7efb1049612a9.js

 

[Trailblazer]

This British Airways flight seems to be the first one that was diverted: it returned to Heathrow.

Hard to say exactly when the diversion took place as I'm not sure what the normal flight path would have been. It looks as if it continued some way past Jersey before turning back but perhaps it would have looped back round to land?

U28042 is the easyJet flight that is in the Sitch above. A sighting with that flight fairly low on the horizon around 8.10 to 8.15pm would be consistent with the diversion.