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Drone nightmare at Munich Airport: Air traffic paralyzed for hours!
Munich: Current drone sightings led to a temporary stop to flights at the airport, affecting thousands of travelers.
Drone nightmare at Munich Airport: Air traffic paralyzed for hours!
On Saturday evening, air traffic at Munich Airport was stopped for a short time due to possible drone sightings. As the South German newspaper reported that air traffic control suspended flight operations for around half an hour around 10 p.m. Another brief closure followed about an hour later, around 11 p.m. These measures were necessary after several people reported “suspicious perceptions” to the federal police. However, it remains unclear whether these were actually drone sightings.
Earlier this month, similar incidents occurred on two consecutive evenings, affecting thousands of travelers. At that time, almost 10,000 passengers had to sleep on camp beds and sleeping mats in the terminals while air traffic was suspended.
Drone surveillance and security concerns
On Thursday evening, reports of drone sightings near Munich Airport were registered for the first time, which quickly spread beyond the airport grounds. According to information from BR24 German air traffic control then immediately closed the runways. The police are currently investigating these incidents, but have not yet been able to confirm whether there was a specific danger to air traffic.
The situation is noteworthy because similar disruptions caused by drones in air traffic can also be observed in other parts of Germany, such as Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein. In Denmark there have recently been several disruptions to air traffic due to unmanned aircraft, which were also spotted near critical infrastructure.
Increase in drone incidents
A spokesman for the Bavarian Interior Ministry expressed concern about the growing number of drone sightings in the Free State, which also occur near barracks, airports and other sensitive areas. German air traffic control has already documented an increase in incidents for 2025 to a total of 144 cases by the end of August, compared to 113 in the previous year and 99 in 2023, as tagesschau.de supplemented. This increase not only poses logistical challenges, but also raises questions about aviation security.
A total of 32 flights were affected at Munich Airport, of which 17 were canceled and 15 were diverted. Around 3,000 travelers experienced inconvenience due to the closures and some of them had to spend the night in camp beds provided on the airport premises. The airport took care of the travelers by providing blankets, drinks and snacks.
However, searches of the site and also by air, including by police helicopters, yielded no tangible results. Despite the disruptions, German air traffic control stated that the technical systems for drone detection at Munich Airport are unclear, as it is not known whether they are actively in use or merely reacting to visual reports.
The events surrounding the drone sightings therefore raise larger questions about aviation safety, with an urgent need for solutions to effectively monitor and defend against these unmanned aircraft.