Munich airport temporarily shut after drone sightings in area

Munich Airport was temporarily shut after multiple drone sightings, disrupting 32 flights and affecting nearly 3,000 passengers. While operations resumed Friday morning, the incident adds to growing EU concerns over mysterious drone overflights, with suspicion falling on Russian-linked activity

Munich: Munich airport was temporarily shut down late Thursday after a string of drone sightings in the area, the latest mysterious drone overflights in the airspace of European Union member countries, officials said.

Germany’s air traffic control restricted flights at the airport shortly after 10 pm and then halted them altogether, airport operators said in a statement.

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Flights in and out of the airport resumed at 5 am local time, said Stefan Bayer, a spokesman for Germany’s federal police at Munich airport.

Authorities were not immediately able to provide any information about who was responsible for the overflights, Bayer said.

The airport’s website showed some departures had taken place early Friday.

Airport officials said 17 flights were unable to take off, affecting almost 3,000 passengers, while 15 arriving flights were diverted to three other airports in Germany and one in Vienna, Austria.

Hundreds of stranded passengers spent the night in cots set up in terminals or were taken to hotels and blankets, drinks and snacks were distributed to them, the German news agency dpa reported.

The incident was the latest in a series of incidents of mysterious drone sightings over airports as well as other critical infrastructure sites in the EU in several European Union member countries.

It wasn’t immediately clear who has been behind the flyovers, but European authorities have expressed concerns Russia could be behind them. Russian authorities have rejected claims of involvement in recent drone incidents in Denmark.

Officials in Russia and close ally Belarus acknowledged last month that some drones used as part of Russia’s war in Ukraine had entered the territory of EU and NATO member Poland, prompting a scramble by Polish and NATO allies in which fighter jets were deployed to shoot them down.

The drone overflights were major focus of a summit of EU and European leaders in Copenhagen, Denmark, this week. Authorities have vowed to step up measures to minimize and thwart the threat posed by drones.