Germany’s Munich the latest European airport to close after wave of drone sightings

By Laura Sharman, CNN

(CNN) — Munich Airport in Germany was forced to close for almost seven hours overnight after a wave of drone sightings, the latest European aviation hub to shutter over unexplained drone flights.

A total of 17 flights were grounded shortly after 10 p.m. local time on Thursday, affecting nearly 3,000 passengers, the airport said in a statement.

In addition, 15 arriving flights were diverted to the German cities of Stuttgart, Nuremberg and Frankfurt, as well as Vienna in neighboring Austria, the statement said. Flight tracking website Flightradar showed several planes circling the airport at around 11pm local time before heading to other destinations.

The airport reopened at 5 a.m local time when flight arrivals and departures were deemed safe, a call handler fielding passenger enquiries told CNN.

“Now everything has resumed. Some flights were cancelled but the airport has reopened. Since 5 a.m, all arrivals and departures are safe,” they said.

The first plane scheduled to land in Munich was a Lufthansa long haul flight from Bangkok, estimated to touch down at 5.25 a.m, according to the airport’s website.

The airport in Bavaria, southern Germany, is a hub for German flag-carrier Lufthansa, and served nearly 20 million passengers in the first half of this year.

A Lufthansa spokesperson told CNN that 19 of its flights were cancelled or diverted due to the closure, including three long-haul flights to Asia which are set to be rescheduled.

It had provided the affected passengers with food, drink and blankets, they said. Agency photos showed people sleeping on a row of camp beds.

CNN has reached out to the Bavarian state police, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office, and Germany’s domestic intelligence agency for comment.

Drones over western Europe

Munich becomes the latest European airport to close after sightings of drones nearby. A spate of sightings over several airports in Denmark last week saw tens of thousands of passengers impacted.

Denmark later banned all civil drone flights in its airspace as it prepared to host a summit of European leaders in Copenhagen this week to discuss support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, and bolstering European security.

At the summit leaders were expected to discuss several measures intended to protect the continent’s skies, including a flagship “drone wall” initiative.

The drone wall initiative would not be a physical wall, but instead a layered network of detection and interception systems, building on individual EU members’ anti-drone capabilities.

Europe has been on high alert in recent weeks due to a string of drone sightings, as well as alleged incursions by Russian drones into NATO airspace over Poland and Romania, and the alleged violation of Estonian airspace by Russian fighter jets.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that while authorities cannot conclude who was behind the drone sightings in Denmark, “we can at least conclude that there is primarily one country that poses a threat to Europe’s security – and that is Russia.”

The Kremlin has denied involvement in the drone sightings, as well as that it violated Estonian airspace.

During a lengthy four hour televised event on Thursday, which touched on multiple key sticking points with Europe and the US, Putin scoffed at Western claims of possible Russian involvement in recent drone flights over Denmark, casting them as part of purported NATO efforts to “inflame tensions to boost the defense spending.”

“I won’t anymore. Not to France, not to Denmark, not to Copenhagen,” he joked, in reference to the drone flight allegations.

But he also issued a veiled threat.

“We are carefully watching the growing militarization of Europe,” he said. “Is all of this just words or is it time for us to take countermeasures? No one should have doubt that Russia’s countermeasures will not take a long time to come.”

Munich, a historic city of more than 1 million people, was already on edge after its famed Oktoberfest beer festival was closed for several hours earlier this week due to a bomb threat.

This is a developing story and has been updated.

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CNN’s Ross Adkin and Isaac Yee contributed reporting