After flights in and out of Dublin Airport were again paused on February 21 due to drones being operated nearby, the Irish Airline Pilots' Association (IALPA) said it flagged concerns about drones six years ago but got a "poor response".
Evan Cullen, the IALPA president, told Ireland's public broadcaster RTÉ, that the organisation warned the Irish government in 2017 about the dangers of drones being flown near airports.
"As early as 2017 we alerted all stakeholders in aviation such as the Dublin Airport Authority, the Irish Aviation Authority, the then minister Shane Ross and the Department of Justice that we felt that any regulations at that time were inadequate," said Cullen, whose organisation represents around 1,200 pilots.
"A drone can take out a jet engine in a matter of seconds. It can also penetrate the windscreen of a cockpit and therefore kill the pilots while in flight. They pose a real threat. They are not toys," Cullen warned.
Flights at Dublin Airport, by far Ireland's biggest and busiest with up to 30 million passengers a year, have been put on hold or diverted for hours at a time on four days since the start of 2023.
A Lithuanian man was charged on February 21 with drone-flying inside the five-kilometre legal limit around the airport in July 2022.