Flights were temporarily suspended late Thursday at Munich Airport after reports of drones in the vicinity, airport officials confirmed. This incident makes Germany the latest European nation to experience air travel interruptions due to drone activity in recent weeks.
The drone activity, first observed at 10:18 p.m. local time, led to 17 flights being unable to depart from Munich, impacting close to 3,000 passengers. Additionally, fifteen incoming flights had to be rerouted to other airports including Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Vienna, and Frankfurt.
“When a drone is sighted, the safety of travelers is the absolute priority,” a statement from the airport emphasized.
Normal flight operations resumed early Friday morning, with airport authorities expressing confidence that all affected passengers would be able to continue their journeys that day. The first flight departed just after 6 a.m.
Just last week, several airports in Denmark and Norway faced closures following drone sightings. Danish leaders described these incidents as attempts to instill fear. European leaders, already on high alert due to recent incursions by Russian aircraft into the airspace of Poland, Estonia, and Romania, have suggested that Russia is behind these drone activities, an accusation Moscow refutes.
The disruption at Munich occurred at the beginning of a long holiday weekend in Germany, coinciding with the final weekend of Oktoberfest, a major event that attracted 6.7 million visitors last year, many of whom were international tourists.
Passengers whose flights were grounded in Munich were provided with beds, blankets, refreshments, and snacks by the airport.
Christopher F. Schuetze also contributed to this report.