By Laura Sharman, NCS
(NCS) — Munich Airport in Germany was forced to close for nearly seven hours in a single day after a wave of drone sightings, the latest European aviation hub to shutter over unexplained drone flights.
A complete of 17 flights have been grounded shortly after 10 p.m. native time on Thursday, affecting practically 3,000 passengers, the airport mentioned in an announcement.
In addition, 15 arriving flights have been diverted to the German cities of Stuttgart, Nuremberg and Frankfurt, in addition to Vienna in neighboring Austria, the assertion mentioned. Flight monitoring web site Flightradar confirmed a number of planes circling the airport at round 11pm native time earlier than heading to different locations.
The airport reopened at 5 a.m. native time when flight arrivals and departures have been deemed secure, a name handler fielding passenger enquiries informed NCS.
“Now everything has resumed. Some flights were cancelled but the airport has reopened. Since 5 a.m, all arrivals and departures are safe,” they mentioned.
The first airplane scheduled to land in Munich was a Lufthansa lengthy haul flight from Bangkok, estimated to contact down at 5.25 a.m, in accordance to the airport’s web site.
The airport in Bavaria, southern Germany, is a hub for German flag-carrier Lufthansa, and served practically 20 million passengers in the first half of this 12 months.
A Lufthansa spokesperson informed NCS that 19 of its flights have been cancelled or diverted due to the closure, together with three long-haul flights to Asia that are set to be rescheduled.
It had supplied the affected passengers with meals, drink and blankets, they mentioned. Agency images confirmed individuals sleeping on a row of camp beds.
NCS has reached out to the Bavarian state police, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office, and Germany’s home intelligence company for remark.
Drones over western Europe
Munich turns into the latest European airport to close after sightings of drones close by. A spate of sightings over a number of airports throughout Denmark and Norway in latest weeks noticed tens of hundreds of passengers impacted.
Denmark later banned all civil drone flights in its airspace because it ready to host a summit of European leaders in Copenhagen this week to talk about help for Ukraine in its struggle towards Russia, and bolstering European safety.
During a four-hour televised occasion on Thursday, which touched on a number of key sticking factors with Europe and the US, Russian President Vladimir Putin scoffed at Western claims of doable Russian involvement in latest drone flights over Denmark, casting them as half of purported NATO efforts to “inflame tensions to boost the defense spending.”
“I won’t anymore. Not to France, not to Denmark, not to Copenhagen,” he joked, in reference to the drone flight allegations.
But he additionally issued a veiled risk.
“We are carefully watching the growing militarization of Europe,” he mentioned. “Is all of this just words or is it time for us to take countermeasures? No one should have doubt that Russia’s countermeasures will not take a long time to come.”
At the European summit leaders have been anticipated to talk about a number of measures meant to defend the continent’s skies, together with a flagship “drone wall” initiative.
This initiative wouldn’t be a bodily wall, however as a substitute a layered community of detection and interception techniques, constructing on particular person EU members’ anti-drone capabilities.
Europe has been on excessive alert in latest weeks due to a string of drone sightings, in addition to alleged incursions by Russian drones into NATO airspace over Poland and Romania, and the alleged violation of Estonian airspace by Russian fighter jets.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen mentioned that whereas authorities can’t conclude who was behind the drone sightings in Denmark, “we can at least conclude that there is primarily one country that poses a threat to Europe’s security – and that is Russia.”
The Kremlin has beforehand denied involvement in the drone sightings, in addition to that it violated Estonian airspace.
Munich, a historic metropolis of greater than 1 million individuals, was already on edge after its famed Oktoberfest beer competition was closed for several hours earlier this week due to a bomb risk.
This is a creating story and has been up to date.
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NCS’s Ross Adkin and Isaac Yee contributed reporting