BERLIN — Germany’s Leipzig/Halle Airport has once again come unsettlingly close to a major security incident, marking the second such scare in a little over two years and underscoring growing concerns over the safety of Europe’s critical infrastructure.
Authorities discovered a drone loaded with explosives at the airport late Tuesday and safely defused it afterward. Germany’s top security official described the episode as representing a “new threat quality,” saying the device appeared to have been prepared in a “professional” manner.
In a separate incident the same night, police said “an object” struck an aircraft. The plane sustained only slight damage.
The latest alarm follows a 2024 incident at the same airport, when an incendiary device caught fire inside a logistics facility and set a freight container ablaze. Western security officials have suspected that case was part of a plot orchestrated by Russian intelligence.
Leipzig/Halle Airport is a key international cargo hub and plays an important role in support operations linked to Ukraine. Among the aircraft frequently seen there are Ukrainian Antonov transport planes.
The airport also hosts NATO’s Strategic Airlift International Solution, known as SALIS, which is currently operating on a near-daily basis. Its missions include moving equipment to NATO battle groups along the alliance’s eastern flank, stretching from Finland to Romania, as well as supporting European Union and allied national operations.
Here’s what else is important to know:
Western governments have repeatedly accused Moscow of sabotage efforts targeting Europe
German authorities have not publicly linked Russia to this latest Leipzig/Halle Airport incident. However, Western officials have broadly accused Moscow of carrying out sabotage and disruption campaigns across Europe, allegedly aimed at weakening support for Ukraine and sowing instability within European countries.
Officials have accused Russia of organizing plots to set fire to warehouses, launching drones and trying to kill enemies abroad as well as stealing defense technology and carrying out cyberattacks on critical European infrastructure.
In May, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the findings of an Associated Press investigation which has tracked around 200 incidents of disruption across Europe blamed on Russia by Western officials since the invasion of Ukraine. He said Moscow is not waging a sabotage campaign against Europe and demanded that AP “name one proven fact.”
Russia has been accused of drone plots in the past
Russia has previously been accused of involvement in plots to use explosives hung from drones. A Ukrainian citizen accused of involvement in the 2024 plot to put explosives on DHL cargo planes traveled to a Lithuanian cemetery in mid-2024 where he dug up a cache of items buried by Russian military intelligence, including drone parts and cans of corn filled with explosives.
The explosives could have hung from the drones as improvised bombs and were destined for the German city of Düsseldorf during the Euro 2024 football championship, Jacek Dobrzyski, spokesperson for Poland’s security minister, told AP last year.
The investigation into the explosives plot involved many countries across Europe.
Leipzig airport is a key node in Ukraine’s supply network
Leipzig is a key node in Ukraine’s supply network alongside other airports across Europe from Belgium to Poland, said Eric Schouten, CEO of Dyami Security Intelligence based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. He said that Russia is investing in surveillance of airports, railroads and ports.
“Even though an airport or a port is not near the frontline, you’re still at risk of spies, espionage and sabotage activity, which is part of hybrid warfare,” he said.
He said that while civilian airports in Europe might be able to track drones, they can’t yet knock them down because of safety concerns and different regulations across the continent.
“They only detect – it’s not deterrence,” Schouten said, adding that Europe will need to become aligned on how to knock down drones. “You cannot just jam or spoof, because aircraft will be affected.”
German police press on with investigations
The drone at Leipzig airport with “an unknown explosive device” was found by an airport employee near the south runway, police said, adding it was being examined after having its detonator removed. An investigation was underway.
Meanwhile, investigators started a search on Thursday surrounding the airport for debris from the object that hit a freight plane.
The collision happened after the plane aborted a landing at Leipzig/Halle because the runway was closed. The plane flew to another German airport, Hannover, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the northwest, where officials found slight damage.
Top security official says the incidents don’t suggest “amateur work”
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt interrupted his vacation and rushed to the airport Wednesday night for a briefing by investigators.
He later told reporters that while drone sightings and drone threats are something Germany has dealt with in the past, “that a drone armed with explosives is at an airport is a new threat scenario.”
Dobrindt described what happened as “a hybrid attack scenario,” but didn’t offer more details of authorities’ assessment or specify who might be responsible.
But he said it was reasonable to believe that such situations “must be very professionally prepared and implemented,” with technical know-how and experience of dealing with explosives.
“All this doesn’t point to amateur work,” Dobrindt added.
Germany’s drone defense challenged
Dobrindt said Germany has a mobile drone defense unit and that there is drone defense technology at airports, but the explosive-laden drone was “conceived in such a way, according to what we know at present, precisely to be able to get around drone defense.” He didn’t elaborate.
“A few months ago, I also made it clear to the public that we need to raise the threat level – moving away from an abstract threat to a high-level threat,” he said Wednesday. “And this is evident right now: the assessment we made months ago – that we are facing a high-level threat – is a reality.”
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Associated Press journalists Emma Burrows in London and Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed reporting.
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