Germany: Drone carrying explosives found near Ukrainian plane at Leipzig airport, Interior Minister calls it 'new level of danger'
German federal police specialists have defused a drone carrying an explosive device after an overnight security incident at Leipzig/Halle Airport.
Officials said the detonator has been removed from an as-yet unidentified explosive device. Authorities say they are not ruling out a political motive, noting that the airport in eastern Germany forms part of the country's critical infrastructure.
The drone carrying the explosive device was found late on Wednesday by an airport employee on the southern runway, according to investigators.
Another flying object later apparently collided with a cargo aircraft, which had aborted its landing after the initial alert and had remained in the air.
Minor damage was discovered after the aircraft landed in Hanover.
Flight operations were initially halted completely after the drone was found.
The northern runway was eventually reopened following a large-scale security sweep overnight, while the southern runway was due to remain closed on Wednesday for maintenance.
Investigators said there was no danger to passengers or airport staff and that passenger flights were not affected.
Drone recovered near Ukrainian plane
Local news reported that the bomb disposal robot disabled the drone near an Antonov plane painted with the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag.
The words "Be Brave Like Kherson" were written on the side in English, in a reference to a Ukrainian region battered by Russian strikes.
Leipzig airport is a key transport hub for military goods by the German armed forces and NATO allies and it also serves as a base for Ukraine's Antonov Airlines.
Marc Henrichmann, the conservative chairman of the German parliament's intelligence oversight committee, said that the incident in Leipzig looked like "an attempt to target a company of importance for Ukraine"
If confirmed, it "would represent a new level of escalation in these sorts of attacks," Henrichmann told the Rheinische Post newspaper.
Russia has not commented on the incident.
The Leipzig airport incident comes after years of drone sightings over sensitive sites in Germany and other NATO allies since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The drone flyovers were reported above other airports, but also over military bases and industrial facilities.
German authorities have accused Russia of orchestrating many such incidents as part of a wider campaign involving sabotage, espionage and disinformation. Moscow has denied involvement.
Leipzig/Halle Airport was already at the center of a suspected sabotage plot in July 2024, when a parcel caught fire before it could be loaded onto a DHL cargo aircraft. Security services treated the incident as potentially linked to Russia.
Last year, a Chinese national was also convicted of passing information about flight schedules and cargo movements at Leipzig/Halle Airport to a man accused of spying for Beijing.
Ukraine's ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, commented on the latest case by drawing a link to the 2024 DHL incident.
"Indeed, Russia has long been waging this hybrid war," he said. "Yet the word 'hybrid' somehow downplays the fact that Russia is waging war not only against Ukraine but also against Europe."
German Interior Minister Dobrindt cuts short holiday over Leipzig drone incident
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has interrupted his holiday to travel to Leipzig/Halle Airport for security talks following the drone incident.
He is due to meet Saxony Interior Minister Armin Schuster and senior federal and state security officials at the scene, his ministry said.
The head of Germany's federal police Dieter Romann and domestic intelligence chief Sinan Selen are also expected to attend.
Dobrindt is then due to brief the media later in the day.
Schuster earlier warned of a "very serious security incident."
He said state and federal security agencies were working closely together, including Germany's joint center for countering hybrid threats and the federal police's drone defense unit.
Interior Minister Dobrindt says drone incident treated as 'hybrid attack scenario'
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said that the explosive drone at Leipzig airport spells "a new level of danger" for the country and is seen as a "hybrid attack scenario."
The minister addressed journalists at Leipzig-Halle airport, after canceling his summer vacation to return to Germany to deal with the matter.
He added that people behind the incident would need to have a high level of technical expertise and experience in dealing with explosives. This spoke against "an amateurish approach," Dobrindt said.
"We are dealing here with a professional hybrid threat scenario," he added.
Earlier, Saxony’s Interior Minister Armin Schuster (CDU) said that authorities are searching for parts of a possible second drone. "The threat is no longer abstract; it is high," Schuster said of the incident.
Interior Minister says armed drone is 'new threat scenario'
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told reporters that finding an armed drone at a German airport was a new threat situation.
"Drone sightings, drone threats including in a hybrid context, are something we know from the past," Dobrindt said. "That a drone armed with explosives is at an airport is a new threat scenario," he added.
"All the speculation that is currently going on about the explosives, the construction, the question of the drone, the origin and, of course, who is behind it, is now part of the investigation," Dobrindt said.
The interior minister said "it would be short-sighted to believe that this form of threat, which objectively exists, can be combated or countered with simple measures.
"We are dealing with a competition here which may also include foreign powers. This will be part of the investigations," he added.
In June, Dobrindt created a so-called Joint Center for Countering Hybrid Threats, as Germany has been on high alert for espionage, sabotage and disinformation, particularly from Russia.
"What is happening now also shows that the assessment made months ago — that we are dealing with a high level of danger — was justified," Dobrindt added.
On Wednesday, German authorities opened a counterterrorism investigation into the incident.
