On Thursday evening, Germany’s second-largest airport was “paralyzed” by unidentified flying objects.
Thirty-two flights were either canceled or diverted, affecting around 3,000 passengers — many of whom were forced to sleep on camping beds inside the terminals, Bild reports.
At around 8:30 p.m., the first indications of drone sightings near the airport emerged. State police launched search operations, while federal police began surveillance and reconnaissance efforts within the airport premises.
Between approximately 10:35 p.m. and midnight, additional drone sightings were reported. Helicopters from both the Federal Police and the Bavarian State Police were deployed in parallel to conduct aerial monitoring and searches.
According to Bild, witnesses first spotted drones over the Erding Air Base (Bavaria) as early as 7:30 p.m. The German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) operate an innovation center there where new drone models are tested.
A total of up to six drones may have been in the air Thursday night — five of which were confirmed by the German Armed Forces. Eyewitnesses described the flying objects as having wingspans between 60 centimeters and one meter.
These details surrounding the “mysterious” incident have emerged following the chaos at the airport.
