Munich Airport in Germany closed its runways and halted flights on Friday evening for the second time within 24 hours after an unconfirmed sighting of drones in the vicinity.
اضافة اعلان
The airport said in a statement that flights were stopped at 21:30 local time (20:30 GMT), affecting about 6,500 passengers. At least 17 flights had already been canceled Thursday evening due to drone sightings in nearby airspace.
These incidents are part of a series of drone-related disruptions affecting air travel in Europe in recent weeks. In Belgium, authorities opened an investigation Thursday after 15 drones were spotted over a military site in Elsenborn near the German border, later observed in the German town of Düren.
Authorities have not yet been able to determine the source of the drones or who is operating them.
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said he will raise the issue of anti-drone defenses during a European Union interior ministers’ meeting on Saturday, originally focused on migration. He added that legislation will be expedited to allow police to request military intervention to shoot down drones.
These developments coincided with a European summit in Copenhagen addressing the growing threat of aerial drones. Several member states proposed multi-layered “drone walls” to detect, track, and neutralize Russian drones.
Recent incursions include 20 Russian drones entering Poland and Russian MiG-31 jets entering Estonian airspace. These incidents also led to temporary closures of Copenhagen and Oslo airports after unidentified drones were spotted nearby.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said ahead of the summit that these airspace violations “are worsening,” and it is “reasonable to assume the drones are from Russia,” while Moscow denied any involvement.
In the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin mocked these accusations, saying: “I won’t do it again, not in France, Denmark, or Copenhagen.”
– Agencies
