Munich Airport halts flights for hour after drone sighting

Munich Airport was forced to suspend all flight operations for over an hour on Saturday morning following reports of a suspected drone near its runways. The disruption began shortly before 9 a.m. local time after pilots on incoming and departing flights alerted air traffic control to a suspicious object in the airport's vicinity.

A Federal Police spokesperson, Stefan Bayer, confirmed that pilots had made a suspicious observation and that a potentially unauthorized flying object was sighted. In response, authorities coordinated with German air traffic control to implement a full ground stop, halting all takeoffs and landings across the airport's two main runways as a precautionary measure.

A significant police operation was launched immediately. Officers deployed across the tarmac and surrounding areas to search for the object and its operator, while a police helicopter conducted aerial sweeps. After an extensive search that found no suspicious findings, authorities gave the all-clear at approximately 10:05 a.m., allowing flight operations to fully resume.

The incident caused substantial travel disruption during the busy weekend morning. According to flight tracking data, the...