Drone alarm at Munich Airport: Public worried!

Drone alarm at Munich Airport: Public worried!

The recent drone sightings at Munich Airport have caused a stir and are raising questions about safety in German airspace. These incidents were discussed in the “Ronzheimer” podcast, where journalist Paul Ronzheimer analyzed the situation with Angelika Hellemann, deputy head of politics at “Bild am Sonntag”. It became clear that identifying the drones is difficult due to the lack of markings and flags. This leads to uncertainty and increased tension in aviation security, emphasizes Hellemann, since these are not “MediaMarkt drones”, but rather unknown origins that could possibly even be used strategically by other states, such as Russia. Welt reports that drones can paralyze all flight operations, causing significant problems for passengers.

The excitement led to flight operations at Franz Josef Strauss Airport being temporarily suspended on Friday evening. According to Zeit, at least two drones were spotted in the area of ​​the runways, which prompted German air traffic control to close them for some time. However, flight operations were gradually resumed on Saturday morning. A total of 81 flights were affected and around 6,500 travelers were forced to spend the night at the airport while authorities were unable to find anyone responsible for the sightings.

The reaction of the authorities

The federal and state police investigations have so far not yielded any concrete information about the origin of the drones. North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul warned of uncertainty among the population and emphasized that not every drone flight should immediately be linked to Russia, even if Hellemann points out that every sighting could play into Putin's strategic considerations. However, the discussion about the security situation is being taken increasingly seriously by politicians, as such incidents have increased significantly in recent months.

Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt is pushing for a new aviation security law that would give the Bundeswehr more rights to defend against drones. Tagesschau reports that, in addition to the planned establishment of a drone defense center, Dobrindt also wants to advocate for the use of jammers and interceptor drones. The background is an assessment that the danger from drones has grown significantly, both in the number and in the type of drones.

Looking to the future

In Bavaria, politicians such as Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann are calling for the police's powers to be expanded so that they can shoot down drones in case of doubt. At the same time, a European plan to detect and defend against drones is being sought, as several countries are affected. Hellemann noted that Ukraine has better drone detection technologies, which underlines another aspect of the discussion about the security situation in Europe.

The situation shows that the issue of drone sightings has had a dormant existence over the years, as a plan for drone-free air had already seen the light of day in 2019, but was never implemented. With the increase in sightings and the associated challenges, policymakers are now calling for urgent action to ensure airspace safety.