Passengers check the timetable board as flights resume at Munich Airport after temporary suspension due to drone sightings in Erding, Germany. Photo / Getty Images
Passengers check the timetable board as flights resume at Munich Airport after temporary suspension due to drone sightings in Erding, Germany. Photo / Getty Images
Flights have progressively resumed at Munich Airport, but delays were expected after a drone scare caused a second shutdown in as many days, affecting more than 6500 passengers, the operator said.
Airports in Denmark, Norway and Poland have recently suspended flights because of unidentified drones, while Romania and Estonia havepointed the finger at Russia, which has brushed off the allegations.
Munich Airport said that on Friday (local time) “from 9.30pm, air traffic was restricted and then cancelled because of drone sightings”, meaning 23 incoming flights were diverted and 12 bound for Munich were cancelled.
Forty-six departures from the airport had to be cancelled or delayed until Saturday, with a total of 6500 passengers affected.
Traffic resumed at 7am Saturday (local time) but with delays and of the 1000 departures or arrivals scheduled, some 170 were cancelled for “operational reasons”, the airport said.
The disruptions came as the country celebrated German Unity Day on Friday – a national holiday – and as Munich geared up for the final weekend of Oktoberfest, which draws hundreds of thousands of people to the city every day.
A police spokesman told AFP that there were “two simultaneous confirmed drone sightings by police patrols just before 11pm around the north and south runways”.
A sign indicates a no-drone-zone as flights resume at Munich Airport. Photo / Getty Images
“The drones immediately moved away, before they could be identified,” he said.
The airport said that it and affected airlines provided stranded passengers with camp beds in the terminals, along with blankets, drinks and snacks.
An AFP journalist who had a delayed connecting flight through Munich saw dozens of people lying and waiting on the camp beds in corridors, some of them families with children. They appeared to be waiting quietly.
The first disruption because of drone sightings, on Thursday (local time), had caused more than 30 flights to be cancelled there and left nearly 3000 passengers stranded.
Police said drones were spotted throughout that day in areas close to the airport, including the towns of Freising and Erding.
Erding plays host to an airfield used by the German military. The Bild newspaper said some of the drones were spotted flying over the facility, although police could not confirm this.
The sightings caused the closure of both runways.
Police helicopters were deployed but authorities said they had no information about the type or number of drones involved.
High alert
Early on Friday (local time), German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the first night’s incident was a “wake-up call” on the threat from drones.
“The race between the threat from drones and the defence against drones is becoming more and more difficult,” he told Bild, adding that “more financing and research” on the issue was urgently needed at the national and European levels.
German Aerospace Industries Association (BDLI) chief executive Marie-Christine von Hahn said the incident proved the need to develop an anti-drone defence system as quickly as possible.
“We now need to act quickly, together with politics, industry and security authorities,” she said. “We as an industry are ready to do our part in this security partnership.”
The German Government is expected on Wednesday (local time) to sign off on plans for a change in the law to let the army shoot drones down if necessary.
The Bavarian Interior Ministry has requested surveillance support from the German army, a military spokeswoman told the DLF radio station.
The drone sightings in Denmark and high-profile aerial incursions in Estonia and Poland have heightened fears that Russia’s assault on Ukraine could spill over Europe’s borders.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Europe on Thursday (local time) that the recent drone incursions showed Moscow was looking to “escalate” its aggression.
Germany is on high alert, saying a swarm of drones had flown over the country last week, including over military and industrial sites.
Denmark also raised the alarm, with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen reiterating last week that only one country “poses a threat to Europe’s security – and that’s Russia”.
Moscow said it “firmly rejects” any suggestion of involvement, with Russian President Vladimir Putin accusing Europe of stoking “hysteria” to justify rising military spending.
