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An airport worker at Germany's Leipzig/Halle Airport found a drone carrying an explosive device near the south runway shortly before midnight on Tuesday, and a police robot removed its detonator before the device was defused. Both runways closed, and several flights, including one passenger plane, diverted to other airports. Leipzig/Halle is one of Europe's busiest air-freight hubs.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt traveled to the site in Schkeuditz on Wednesday and called the discovery "a new quality of danger." He described the case as a hybrid attack scenario but offered no detail on who might be responsible. German authorities have named no suspects and have not attributed the incident.
The north runway reopened after about two hours, while the south runway was already scheduled to be out of service for maintenance. Authorities said there was no danger to passengers or staff, and daytime flights ran normally, according to Al Jazeera.
A second flying object collided with a freight aircraft after the plane aborted its landing because the runway was closed. The aircraft flew on to Hannover, about 125 miles to the northwest, where inspectors found minor damage. Saxony's regional interior minister, Armin Schuster, said crews were searching for parts of what may have been a second drone.
Prosecutors in Saxony, who handle politically motivated and extremist crimes, are leading the investigation. Photos from the tarmac showed technicians working with an explosives-disposal robot near Ukrainian Antonov cargo planes. Leipzig/Halle has hosted Antonov Airlines since Russia's 2022 invasion destroyed the carrier's home base. Officials have not said the aircraft were the target.
The airport has been hit before. In 2024, an incendiary device ignited at a logistics center on the site and set fire to a freight container, part of a plot that Western officials have linked to Russian intelligence. Officials across Europe have tied dozens of arson and sabotage cases to Russia and its proxies since the war in Ukraine began. NATO said it was aware of the latest incident and referred questions to German authorities.
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