Germany: Munich airport reopens after drone sightings forced suspension of flight operations

Berlin, Oct 3 Germany's Munich airport has reopened on Friday after several drone sightings had forced suspension of flight operations on Thursday night. The airport, shut late on Thursday night, reportedly reopened early on Friday morning.

According to the statement released by the airport, flights were grounded from 10:18 pm (local time) and 17 flights and nearly 3000 passengers were impacted at the time of its release, Euro News reported.

In a statement, the airport stated, "Late in the evening of October 2, German air traffic control (DFS) restricted flight operations at Munich Airport from 10:18 pm and later suspended them altogether due to several drone sightings."

"When a drone is sighted, the safety of travellers is the top priority," it added.

The drone sighting in Germany is the latest in a string of such incidents happening across Europe in the past week. Earlier, airports in Poland, Norway and Denmark also suspended operations for sometime due to unidentified drone activity.

Airspace violations were also reported in Estonia and Romania, which accused Russia for the incident. However, Russia has rejected the allegations.

Earlier on September 26, Aalborg airport in Denmark was shut for a second time in just 24 hours after suspected drone incursion. While addressing a press conference on September 25, Danish Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said that a “professional actor” was responsible for the “systematic operation” that was difficult to fight against, Euro News reported.

"This is an arms race against time because technology is constantly evolving," Poulsen said, while expressing optimism that those behind the drone activity will be brought to book.

He stated, "We are going to find the people who are behind this."

Danish Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard said on Thursday that the drone incursion was aimed to create fear and division, adding that Denmark will seek additional ways to neutralise drones, including proposing law to allow infrastructure owners to bring them down.

On September 22, the Copenhagen airport was affected by a similar incident. Authorities said the drones at Aalborg followed a similar pattern to the ones that paused operations at Copenhagen. Similarly, Norwegian authorities also closed the airspace at Oslo airport for three hours on September 22 due to possible danger from unauthorised drone activity.

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