Munich Airport was shut down temporarily overnight after several mysterious drones were spotted flying in the area, officials confirmed via the Associated Press.
Flights were restricted by Germany's air traffic control just after 10:00 p.m. local time on Thursday (October 2) before 17 flights were halted altogether, affecting an estimated 3,000 passengers, airport operators said in a statement addressing the incident. Fifteen flights scheduled to arrive at Munich Airport were diverted to three other airports in Germany, as well as one in Vienna, Austria.
Flights in and out of Munich Airport resumed at 5:00 a.m. local time, Stefan Bayer, a spokesman for Germany's federal police at Munich Airport, confirmed, though authorities couldn't provide immediate details on who was responsible for the temporary shut down. The airport did, however, confirm that "several drone sightings" were reported in a statement shared on Friday (October 3), but didn't elaborate further.
Bayer said it wasn't immediately determined how many drones were involved, but acknowledged that the sightings were made by authorities, airline employees and "regular people around the airport." Federal police deployed helicopters and other means to track down the drones, but were unsuccessful in locating them, after the closures took place.
The incident is the latest involving mysterious drone sightings in the airspace of European countries, following similar incidents in Norway, Denmark and Poland. European authorities have expressed concerns that Russia could be behind all of them after Russia and close ally Belarus acknowledged that some drones used in its war in Ukraine entered Poland's airspace last month, which resulted in Polish and NATO allies having deployed fighter jets to shoot the drones down.