Explosive Drone Discovered at Leipzig/Halle Airport Amid Heightened Security Alerts
Police found a drone carrying an explosive device near Ukrainian cargo planes at Leipzig/Halle Airport and later detonated it safely, while a separate unidentified object struck a cargo aircraft nearby.
Police in Saxony reported that a drone equipped with an explosive device was discovered on the tarmac of Leipzig/Halle Airport after an employee spotted it near parked Antonov cargo planes. A robot was deployed to secure the area, and the detonator was removed before authorities carried out a controlled explosion.
A second, unidentified object collided with a cargo aircraft in the vicinity of the same airport, causing only minor damage that was assessed after the plane landed in Hanover.
The incident comes as German airports remain on heightened alert following a series of unauthorized drone flights over sensitive locations, including military installations and logistics hubs. Saxony Interior Minister Armin Schuster described the event as a "very serious security incident."
Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, suggested the device could be linked to Russian actors, a view echoed by security experts who note an increase in suspicious drone activity since the start of the conflict in Ukraine.
Leipzig/Halle Airport serves both German military and NATO logistics and is a key base for Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines, which handle a large portion of the country’s aerial cargo.