Navy Was 'Preparing to Engage' Drone as San Diego Airport Halted, FAA Papers Show

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. — Newly released Federal Aviation Administration records add detail to the afternoon of September 4, 2026, when suspected drones near San Diego International Airport halted flights at the start of the Labor Day weekend. According to The Black Vault, which obtained the papers through the Freedom of Information Act, they include two Mandatory Occurrence Reports and two air traffic control recordings. They also include a previously unreported detail from nearby Naval Air Station North Island.

The public account at the time was brief. The airport confirmed that a drone and a weather balloon had been identified near the field at about 2:00 p.m. local time, and that an all-clear came at about 4:30 p.m. NBC 7 San Diego reported, citing FlightAware, that roughly 420 flights had been delayed by 6:00 p.m. The FAA put average delays at about 122 minutes. The Black Vault cautions that these figures describe the whole disruption and do not mean every delay was caused by the reported objects.

The longer of the two FAA reports records that multiple taxiing aircraft reported a drone over the departure end of the runway, and that all departures were stopped. According to the report, the tower could not see the object itself, though at least seven aircraft kept reporting it. The tower later obtained visual contact with a silver object hovering north of the runway. A San Diego County Sheriff's helicopter crew also saw it, though the report says they were unable to get video.

A second report concerns Southwest Airlines Flight 1562, whose pilot reported a drone about a mile off the departure end. Another Southwest flight reportedly described a similar object eight minutes later. The FAA acknowledged that this could have been the earlier object seen again, so the records do not settle how many objects were involved.

The most striking entry concerns North Island. According to the longer report, the Navy called to say the military had an unauthorized drone it was preparing to engage. The Black Vault stresses that the entry does not show whether anyone actually engaged it, by what means, or whether the object was recovered. It also does not link the Navy's drone to the objects seen at the airport.

The audio adds color. In the Local Control recording a controller tells waiting pilots of unauthorized drone activity over the runway. In the Ground Control recording a controller says the drone is 'just kind of hanging around' and that departures cannot proceed for safety reasons. Another speaker describes what 'almost looks like a silver sphere.' Later, a speaker says there might be two drones, and another allows that one could have been a helicopter.

Near the 55-minute mark of the Ground Control recording, a speaker is transcribed as saying one drone over North Island 'got shot down.' The Black Vault says no military records or public statements corroborate this, and it treats the remark as an unverified assertion made in the moment. It also notes that the FAA said no transcripts existed. The transcripts were generated by The Black Vault's own software and are working transcriptions, not authenticated FAA documents.

Left unanswered are who operated the objects, how many there were, whether the airport's weather balloon matches any sighting, and what became of the Navy's reported response. The records show that pilots reported suspected unmanned aircraft, that controllers halted departures and that law enforcement tried to observe the objects. They report no collision or injury.