Air traffic at Brandenburg Airport near Berlin was halted for two hours on Friday evening after a report of a flying drone. This is reported by the news agency AP. The drone was seen by several people, but could not be intercepted.
The first report came from a pilot. Police officers who responded to the report later confirmed that they too saw a drone. It is unknown what type of drone it was and who controlled it.
In recent months, several European countries, including those outside Eastern Europe, have had to deal with suspicious drone activities over critical infrastructure. Air traffic was previously temporarily halted in Munich, Copenhagen and Oslo. In September, Dutch and Polish fighter planes even took action in Poland to shoot down drones.
Drone wall
In response to the increasing threat, the European Union is working on a so-called ‘drone wall’: a network of sensors and weapons that can detect, track and possibly disable unmanned devices. It is still unclear when the wall will be operational, partly because the financing has not yet been secured.
Air traffic controllers in the Netherlands are also confronted with drone incidents several dozen times every year. Hobbyists or plane spotters are often responsible. But since nineteen Russian drones invaded Polish airspace on September 9, governments have become more alert to possible hostile drones.
In many cases it remains difficult to determine where exactly drones come from. Russia has been identified as responsible for a few incidents.
Also read
Drones are popping up everywhere in European airspace. But how can EU countries arm themselves against it?
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