The German Leipzig/Halle Airport, a major transport hub for cargo and military equipment, fully resumed flights on Thursday after a drone packed with explosives was found near a Ukrainian cargo plane the previous day, officials said, UNN writes, citing ABC News.
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Several aircraft, including a passenger plane, were diverted, and part of the airport was closed, but airport operations have now returned to normal, an airport spokesperson told ABC News on Thursday.
A drone carrying an unidentified explosive device was discovered early Wednesday morning near the airport’s southern runway, close to the cargo operations area, according to a joint statement from the Dresden prosecutor’s office and the Saxony State Criminal Police Office.
Authorities said they found a drone equipped with an explosive device and detonator near a Ukrainian Antonov cargo plane. German authorities classified the incident as a matter of national security and did not rule out the possibility of sabotage.
According to dpa, citing security service sources, "a drone with explosives was found late Tuesday near a Ukrainian Antonov An-124 cargo plane."
"First of all, I must say that we have to assume we are dealing with a very serious security-related incident," German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told reporters on Wednesday. "In my assessment, we are dealing with a hybrid attack scenario."
He said that "foreign states may also possibly be involved" in the incident, but cautioned that speculation about the explosives, including their design and origin, as well as those who may be behind them, should be left to the investigation.
"Any speculation on these issues could be wrong; it could simply be completely false. The priority now is to investigate in all directions," he said.
According to the official, the federal police bomb disposal unit removed the detonator.
A second drone collided with a DHL cargo plane after it aborted its landing because the runway had been closed, officials said, noting in their statement that the plane later landed in Hanover, Germany, with minor damage.
As dpa reports, investigators continued searching on Thursday for a separate unidentified flying object that apparently collided with a DHL cargo plane after the aircraft aborted its landing in Leipzig because the runways had been closed following the first incident.
The case is being handled by Saxony’s Central Office for Extremism and the federal state’s terrorism unit.
Authorities said on Wednesday that further information would not be provided immediately because of the ongoing investigation. Investigators said there was no danger to passengers or personnel.