Air traffic at Leipzig-Halle Airport in eastern Germany was temporarily suspended on Tuesday night after a drone was spotted near a Ukrainian cargo plane and a suspicious object was found on the southern runway, the Saxony police said on Wednesday. Investigators confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that the drone was equipped with an "explosive device".
"A drone carrying an unidentified explosive device was discovered by an employee at Leipzig-Halle Airport," the investigators said, adding that the police had used a bomb-disposal robot to remove the detonator.
A security incident involving at least one drone, which occurred on Tuesday night, led to the temporary suspension of traffic at Leipzig Airport in Germany – a key military hub used by NATO and for Ukraine – near which an aircraft struck a flying object.
Footage shot at night by a news agency showed police and fire service vehicles, as well as a bomb-disposal robot, moving across the tarmac, very close to an aircraft belonging to the Ukrainian cargo airline Antonov Airlines and not far from a plane operated by the German carrier DHL.
This incident comes as Germany has for months been warning of attempts at sabotage, disinformation and cyberattacks originating from hostile foreign powers, primarily Russia.
A plane "apparently collided" with another object as it was regaining altitude after being unable to land at Leipzig-Halle Airport. The airport had been temporarily closed before the drone was discovered, the German Interior Ministry confirmed on Wednesday.
Despite the collision, the aircraft in question landed safely at Hanover Airport, 200 km north-west of this military hub used by the German armed forces, NATO and for freight bound for Ukraine, said the ministry’s spokesperson, Leonard Kaminski, during a regular government press briefing in Berlin.
He also confirmed that a drone had been "found" as part of the investigation to clarify the security incident. Kaminski declined to give further details due to the ongoing investigation.
The disruption to air traffic "lasted around two hours" on Tuesday night, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Transport said at the same press briefing.
This article was updated at 15:51 to include the latest information.
