Munich Airport in Germany was pressured to shut quickly final night time after a wave of drone sightings, the newest European aviation hub to shutter over unexplained drone flights.
A complete of 17 flights had been grounded shortly after 10 p.m. native time on Thursday, affecting practically 3,000 passengers, the airport stated in an announcement.
In addition, 15 arriving flights had been diverted to the German cities of Stuttgart, Nuremberg and Frankfurt, in addition to Vienna in neighboring Austria, the assertion stated.
A name handler fielding passenger enquiries for Munich Airport in a single day informed NCS: “Some flights are still waiting to take off, others have been canceled. Everything is under control and the airport is due to reopen at 5 a.m.”
The airport in Bavaria, southern Germany, is a hub for German flag-carrier Lufthansa, and served practically 20 million passengers within the first half of this yr.
It turns into the newest European airport to shut after sightings of drones close by. A spate of sightings over a number of airports in Denmark final week 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 debate help for Ukraine in its combat in opposition to Russia, and bolstering European safety.
Europe has been on excessive alert in current weeks resulting from 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 stated 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 denied involvement within the drone sightings, in addition to that it violated Estonian airspace.
Munich, a historic metropolis of greater than 1 million folks, was already on edge after its famed Oktoberfest beer pageant was closed for several hours earlier this week resulting from a bomb risk.
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