‘Explosive drone’ found next to plane shuts down runway at airport in Germany

German police are investigating attempted sabotage after a drone rigged with explosives was found next to a Ukrainian cargo plane in Leipzig.

The Ukrainian An-124 cargo aeroplane had been at Germany’s Leipzig-Halle Airport, a major hub for cargo aircraft.

Just before midnight, the drone was found next to the Ukrainian cargo plane, with an ‘unknown substance and detonator’ fitted to the drone.

Police called a bomb squad to conduct a remote detonation, avoiding any injuries or fatalities. Leipzig-Halle Airport also serves commercial aircraft passengers, but the cargo zone is separated from where passengers would be.

Police in Germany are investigating the discovery as a possible sabotage attack, but no leads have been produced so far.

Russian saboteurs have been the leading suspect in multiple plots to set fire to or detonate explosives near cargo.

In 2024, a DHL plane flying from Leipzig Airport to Lithuania crashed, killing one and injuring three others.

That incident came just months after Russian-backed saboteurs were believed to be behind a firebomb which detonated at a DHL warehouse in Birmingham – dubbed a ‘test run’ by Russian spies.

Before the blaze in Birmingham, a near-identical fire occurred at a DHL warehouse in Leipzig, Germany – where the plane that crashed near Lithuania departed from – with another suspect package bound for a flight thought to be the source of the blaze.

European authorities, including MI6, previously alleged that Russia is behind the expanding campaign of sabotage on planes. 

Russia is suspected to have been targeting aircraft systems for years, but only caught attention for affecting Ryanair, Wizz-Air, British Airways, Easyjet, TUI and Jet2 after an open-source investigation.

Between August 2023 and March 2024 alone, 46,000 flights in areas such as the Baltic, Black Sea and eastern Mediterranean logged interference issues.

Warnings of Russian interference with plane navigation systems are not unheard of – and the Kremlin has continued to deny any wrongdoing.

In 2019, the Norwegian defence ministry brought up the issue in a bilateral meeting with Russian officials.

The electronic attacks have also been allegedly deployed in the Donbas, eastern Ukraine, dating back to 2015.

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