Munich: After drone alarm-new rules for unmanned aircraft

After viewing drones at Munich Airport, the search for possible pilots and their motifs run in full swing. At the same time, politics wants to tighten its line in the fight against the unmanned aircraft. Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) made a connection with a possible threat from outside and said: “We are no longer in peace as we were.”

Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt wants to participate in the fight against drones as part of the administrative assistance. So far, the matter of the federal and state police is. Dobrindt wants to present a draft for a new Air Security Act soon. “We are in a race between drone threat and drone defense,” said the CSU politician. This has to be won.

Union parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn (CDU) had already asked for the immediate development of a functioning drone defense before the current incident in a conversation with the Bavarian media group.

Regardless of this, Bavaria wants to re -enact, as State Minister of the Interior Joachim Herrmann (CSU) explained. This is intended to enable the Bavarian state police to shoot drones in case of doubt. “We want to significantly expand the legal possibilities of the Bavarian police so that it can act immediately and effectively against drones. This also means that the police can shoot drones immediately in the event of acute danger.”

Drones of unknown origin were sensitive to the second largest German airport in Munich on Thursday evening and on Friday night. Numerous flights failed or had to be redirected at neighboring airports such as Nuremberg or Stuttgart. Around 3000 passengers were affected. Hundreds of people had to spend the night on field beds set up in the terminals. Others were brought to hotels.

Flight operations were resumed in the early morning, as the federal police informed. The operation normalized during the day. Some flights, such as the German airline Lufthansa, which had failed late in the evening, were made up for during the day.

A drone was also seen above a Bundeswehr site in Erding near Munich-close to the airport, a spokeswoman for the Bundeswehr’s operational management command. The “Bild” newspaper had first reported. The incident, like other drone survival on military facilities, is taken very seriously. It was unclear whether there was a connection with the drones at the airport.

Drones, including unarmed people, represent a potential danger to aircraft, especially during the start and landing. In a study, the US Air Agency Faa found that a collision with a drone causes major damage to aircraft than collision with an equally large bird. Bird strike has been considered one of the great risks in aviation for a long time. Both birds and drones can get into the engines and disrupt them, but also cause damage to cockpitsch pits or on wings that can even lead to considerable safety risks, at least.

According to the federal police, several people had reported a drone near the Munich Airport in the evening. Police officers could also have seen the flight objects. Later there were also sightings over the airport site. It was initially unclear how many drones it was. It was also unclear who could be responsible for the incident.

The German air traffic control then blocked the starting and landingways late in the evening, it said. The officials of the state and federal police would have monitored the site and searched for flight objects and suspects- without success. According to Dobrindt, a police helicopter was also used.

According to the operator, there were 17 flights on Thursday evening. A passenger told the German press agency that the plane had already been on the runway, but then rolled back to the terminal. From around 10:15 p.m., landings were no longer possible: Instead, 15 flights were diverted to Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Vienna and Frankfurt, as the operator wrote on the airport website. At Munich Airport, a night flight ban applies to regular passenger traffic between midnight and 5:00 a.m.

The Munich Oktoberfest is still running until Sunday. The largest folk festival in the world attracts several million visitors from other cities and countries every year. According to the Munich police, a drone was also spotted on Thursday evening. A man from Georgia was responsible. The drone memory card was ensured that the man was released against a security deposit.

Drone had only been spotted over Schleswig-Holstein last week. The authorities are suspecting that drones have flown over critical infrastructure, including through a power plant in Kiel. The Flensburg public prosecutor’s office initiated an investigation against unknown people on Friday night. Due to the drone survival, some of which is in conjunction with the initial suspicion of a crime of the “Important Image”.

Several times, drones had also disrupted air traffic in Denmark and caused uncertainty and chaos.

According to German air traffic control, disorders with drones at the airports have increased significantly. A week ago, the company, which belongs 100 percent to the federal government, had announced that 144 disabilities were already registered by drones by the end of August. There were 6 sightings in Munich alone by August, 35th at Frankfurt Airport. In the previous year, there were 113 occurrences nationwide in the same period, only 99 in 2023.