Explosive drone found at Leipzig airport — German anti-terror police launch investigation

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German counterterrorism authorities are leading an investigation into an explosive-laden drone that was found overnight at Leipzig airport, an important base for the NATO alliance.

An airport worker discovered the drone carrying an explosive device in a restricted cargo area late Tuesday, according to Dresden Public Prosecutor’s office and Saxony state police . A police bomb disposal robot examined the drone before officers disarmed the device by removing its detonator.

Airport officials temporarily suspended flights and diverted several aircraft. One of the diverted planes, a DHL cargo aircraft, struck another flying object while climbing away from the airport. After landing at Hanover airport, officials found signs of an impact on the aircraft’s nose.

Officials told WELT — which, like POLITICO, is part of the Axel Springer group — that the device’s detonator failed to function, preventing an explosion. They also said the drone was found just meters from a Ukrainian Antonov transport aircraft. According to the report, it contained Semtex, the explosive used in the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground.

Leipzig airport hosts the base of operations of NATO’s Strategic Airlift International Solution ( SALIS ), which gives participating countries access to Antonov cargo planes to transport military equipment. The airport is DHL’s largest European air hub and serves as an aircraft maintenance base for some Ukrainian Antonov aircraft.

According to WELT, security authorities have internally classified the incident as an attempted attack. No suspects had been detained as of Wednesday evening.

Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt interrupted his summer vacation in Italy to meet officials in Leipzig.

Saxony’s Interior Minister Armin Schuster described the incident in a statement as “very serious security incident.”

Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, assumed Moscow could be behind the incident. “I hope that all the authorities in Germany will now establish the facts as well. But who else could it have been besides Russia?” he posited on WELT TV .

Russia’s embassy to Germany didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lennart Pfahler contributed reporting from Berlin. This article has been updated.