German authorities suspended flight operations overnight at Leipzig/Halle Airport after a drone was found near the southern runway, prompting a bomb-disposal response. Saxony Police confirmed a robot was used to examine the object and that the southern runway remained closed as a precaution, with several flights diverted to other airports; operations later resumed on the northern runway.
The tabloid Bild reported additional details not confirmed in the police statement: that the drone had a detonator attached, that investigators classified it as a possible explosive device, and that it was found near a cargo plane belonging to Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines, according to Watson, citing German outlet t-online.
Leipzig/Halle is a significant logistics node: it hosts DHL Aviation’s main European hub and, since Antonov relocated its fleet following the 2022 destruction of Hostomel Airport near Kyiv, has served as the primary base for Antonov Airlines’ An-124 heavy-lift freighters, historically used for oversized cargo including military and humanitarian shipments.
No agency has named a suspect or motive, and it remains unconfirmed whether the object was ultimately detonated. The incident follows a wave of unauthorized drone overflights over German military sites, energy terminals, ports and logistics facilities in recent months, Reuters reported, per Antena 3. If confirmed as an explosive device, this incident would mark a departure from those earlier aerial-observation cases toward a grounded object with an attached detonator — though no source has yet characterized it as part of a coordinated campaign.
