Latest drone activity stalls Munich Airport relaunch ahead of Oktoberfest finale
By Laura Sharman, CNN
(CNN) — Munich Airport in Germany briefly delayed the relaunch of flight operations on Saturday morning local time due to drone sightings, after previous UAV sightings earlier halted all traffic at the airport for several hours.
Munich’s two runways were first closed overnight into Friday due to the drone sightings. Flights resumed early Friday morning but were halted that evening after more drones were spotted.
The airport eventually re-opened at around 7 a.m. local time. Around 6,500 passengers were affected by the latest temporary shutdown, with 23 diverted flights plus 58 cancellations and delays.
Europe has been on edge in recent weeks due to repeated unexplained drone sightings over civilian and military airports in Denmark, Germany and Norway.
And on Friday, defense officials in Belgium reported an unspecified number of drones flew over the country’s Elsenborn military base and towards the border with Germany.
“This is the first such incident we are aware of,” a spokesperson for Belgium’s defense ministry told Reuters.
Munich, a historic city of more than one million people, is currently hosting its famed Oktoberfest beer festival, which draws millions of visitors from Germany and abroad.
The airport closures came ahead of the festival finale on Sunday.
Munich Airport said there would be delays “in operations throughout the day.”
Those expecting to travel early Saturday morning are advised to check the status of their flight on airline websites before arriving at the airport, the hub said in an online statement.
CNN has reached out to the Bavarian state police, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office, and Germany’s domestic intelligence agency for comment.
Drone watch in Western Europe
Munich becomes the latest European airport to close after sightings of drones nearby. A spate of sightings over several airports across Denmark and Norway in recent weeks saw tens of thousands of passengers impacted.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that while authorities cannot conclude who was behind recent 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 previously denied involvement in the drone sightings.
Denmark later banned all civil drone flights in its airspace as it prepared to host a summit of European leaders in Copenhagen this week to discuss support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, and bolstering European security.
At the European summit leaders were expected to discuss several measures intended to protect the continent’s skies, including a flagship “drone wall” initiative.
This initiative would not be a physical wall, but instead a layered network of detection and interception systems, building on individual EU members’ anti-drone capabilities.
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