Mysterious drones that managers cannot explain continuing to close European airports: “It could be anyone”

The air traffic control of Germany has restricted flights to the airport shortly after 10 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Thursday, and then interrupted them, the airport operators said in a statement. Seventeen flights were unable to take off, affecting nearly 3,000 passengers, while 15 arriving flights were diverted to three other airports in Germany and one in Vienna, Austria.

The flights inside and outside the airport resumed at 5 am (0300 GMT), said Stefan Bayer, spokesperson for the German federal police at Munich airport. The authorities were not immediately able to provide information on whom was responsible for overflights.

On Friday, an airport declaration said that there had been “several drone observations”, without developing. Bayer said he was not immediately clear how many drones could have been involved. He said police, airline employees and “ordinary airport people” were one of the witnesses who reported drone observations.

After closing the tracks, federal police deployed helicopters and other means to try to find the drones, but no sign of them could be found, said Bayer.

Hundreds of blocked passengers spent the night in beds in terminals or were taken to hotels, and covers, drinks and snacks were distributed to them, the German news agency DPA reported.

Drones were spotted during the night in Belgium

The incident was the last of a series of incidents of mysterious drone observations on airports as well as other critical infrastructure sites in several member countries of the European Union. A drone incident in Oslo, the capital of Norway, which is a member of NATO but was not part of the EU, also affected theft there at the end of last month.

In Belgium, several drones were spotted overnight over a military base near the German border, the Defense Minister Theo Francken said in the newspaper in the evening.

The minister did not confirm how many drones were flying near the Elsenborn military base – which mainly serves as a army training center with a shooting field – just after midnight. The Belgian public broadcaster VRT said that 15 drones had been spotted near the base, about 600 kilometers (about 375 miles) from Munich.

Francken stressed that the nature of thefts was “suspicious and unknown,” said in the evening. An investigation by the Ministry of Defense is underway.

“ Anyone ‘could be behind the overflights

It was not immediately clear which was behind the overflies, but the European authorities expressed concerns in Russia could be behind them. Russian authorities have rejected allegations of involvement in recent drone incidents in Denmark.

Hans-Christian Mathiesen, vice-president of defense programs at Sky-Watch, a Danish manufacturer of a Fixed Wing Combat Drone who is used in Ukraine, said “it could be anyone” who could overflight drone like that of Munich Airport.

“If you have a drone, you can always fly it in a limited airspace and a disrupted activity. So, everything, boys, not thinking about what they are doing – just being wrong – to someone who does it for a goal: criminal organizations, state actors, you call it,” said Mathiesen, whose company is involved in the ecosystem of rapidly evolving drone.

A state actor could disrupt activities and examine the responses “with a minimum level of effort,” he said.

The officials of Russia and the ally close to the Belarus recognized last month that certain drones used in the Russian war in Ukraine entered the territory of the EU and NATO Poland, which prompted rackble by Polish and NATO allies in which fighter planes have been deployed to shoot down.

Overflights drones were a major objective of an EU summit and European leaders in Copenhagen, Denmark, this week. Authorities have promised to improve measures to minimize and thwart the threat posed by drones.

A Russian tanker is back at sea

In addition, an oil tanker linked to Russia that the authorities of France held – which had been suspected of a possible involvement in the incursions of the drone over Denmark – was back at sea on Friday. The marine ship’s monitoring website has shown the ship heading southwest of the French Atlantic coast where it was detained and apparently for the Suez Canal.

An in -depth research of the commandos of the French navy which rose aboard the ship has found no drone, no equipment to launch drones and no evidence that the drones had taken off from the ship, according to an official with the investigation which spoke under the cover of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The oil tanker’s name has changed several times and is now known as “Pushpa” or “Boracay”. Its itinerary of a Russian oil terminal in the Atlantic exceeded it the coast of Denmark.

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The writers of the Associated Press Lorne Cook in Brussels and John Leicester in Pecq, in France, contributed to this report.

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