Hanover Airport operations were temporarily suspended on Wednesday evening due to the detection of a drone over an industrial area. Affected flights were diverted to neighboring airports.
Operations at Hanover Airport were temporarily suspended on Wednesday evening after a drone was spotted in its vicinity. The airport did not accept or handle flights from 10:00 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. after the pilot of one of the planes spotted and reported a drone during the approach, which according to initial findings was moving over a nearby industrial area, reports TASR with reference to the DPA agency citing the spokesperson of the Federal Police.
During the disruption, three aircraft were diverted to the nearby airport in Langenhagen. The remaining planes landed or took off with delays.
The drone disrupted the flight
One of the diverted planes took off from Frankfurt am Main and ended up landing in Hamburg instead of Hanover. Another transport aircraft returned to Amsterdam and one cargo aircraft was diverted to Cologne/Bonn Airport.
Operations at Bremen Airport were suspended for almost an hour on Sunday evening after a drone was spotted in its vicinity. On Friday evening, Berlin Brandenburg Airport was closed for approximately two hours for the same reason.
Prohibition of operation of drones
The operation of drones is prohibited within a radius of 1.5 kilometers from German airports, as they could endanger take-offs and landings. The state-owned Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS) recorded four violations each by drones at Bremen and Hanover airports until the end of August this year.
