Munich airport in Germany reopened on Friday after closing during the night of Thursday (2) due to sightings of drones that forced cancellation or diversion of flights.
It happened on the eve of German reunification day, national holiday, and increased concerns about the vulnerability of infrastructure in Europe.
With the resumption of operations on Friday morning, a Reuters witness saw passengers checking in for a flight to Varna, Bulgaria, and the match panel showed that only a few flights had been canceled.
A Bangkok flight was the first of the day to land around 5:25 am (00h25, in Brasilia), according to the site itself.
The airport reported that drones sighting on Thursday night forced air traffic control to suspend operations, leading to cancellation of 17 flights and interrupting the trips of nearly 3,000 passengers, which received campaign beds, blankets and food.
Another 15 flights were diverted to other cities, including Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Vienna and Frankfurt, the airport said.
The drones were sighted late at night on the airport, a police spokesman told Bild newspaper. But as it was dark, the size and types of drones could not be determined, he added. Police did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
The interruption in Munich is the latest in a series of similar drones incidents that have shaken European aviation and raised broader safety concerns after airspace invasions temporarily closed airports at and Norway last week.
The incidents caused a striking response from the European Union leaders, who supported plans on a Copenhagen summit on Wednesday (1st) to reinforce the bloc’s defenses with anti-stream measures.
“Europe needs to be able to defend itself,” said Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen after the meeting.
Authorities have not publicly guilty of a specific agent for the drone incident in Munich, but some European authorities have suggested that Russia is behind other recent airspace violations.
“Russia tries to test us. But Russia also tries to sow division and anxiety in our societies,” said European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin joked on Thursday that he would no longer fly drones about Denmark, but Moscow denied responsibility for the incidents.
The interruption at Munich airport contributed to a tense week in the city after the temporary closure of the popular Oktoberfest due to a bomb threat and the discovery of explosives in a residential building in the northern part of the city.
