Flight operations at Hannover Airport were temporarily suspended in the night to Tuesday due to a drone sighting. An airport spokesperson said the runways were repeatedly closed between shortly before 4:00 a.m. and approximately 5:20 a.m., with both runways partially affected.
6 flights
Passenger flights were delayed as a result of the drone sighting, according to an airport spokesperson.
A cargo aircraft from Paris was diverted. Flight operations resumed as scheduled in the morning, an airport spokesperson said. The drone was detected by airport staff multiple times.
According to an internal police report cited by Der Spiegel, the warning and detection equipment of the German Federal Police (Bundespolizei) did not detect the drone, and the German air traffic control service (Deutsche Flugsicherung) was also unable to locate it. The Federal Police suspect the drone was not a commercially available model, because their detection technology did not respond to it.
The drone's flight duration of approximately two hours also supports the assumption that it was not a commercially available model, according to the same report. The report stated that "the existence of hybrid activity cannot be ruled out" with regard to critical infrastructure. Hybrid activity refers to incidents where foreign state actors may be interfering with infrastructure, according to Der Stern.
It is unclear whether there is a connection between the Hannover drone incident and a drone incident in Leipzig, according to the internal police report. The Hannover airport referred inquiries about the background of the drone sighting to the German Federal Police. The Federal Police stated that the investigation was taken over by the police state protection unit (Staatsschutz) of the Central Criminal Police of Hannover. They said they would not provide further information on the status of the investigation at this time in order not to jeopardize the work.
The Hannover drone incident occurred a few days after a drone equipped with explosives was found at Leipzig/Halle Airport on the night of August 5. The German Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (Bundesanwaltschaft) has taken over the investigation in the Leipzig/Halle case on suspicion of attempted causing of an explosive explosion and dangerous interference with air traffic.
Der Spiegel was the first to report on the Hannover drone incident. Requests from NDR Niedersachsen to the Federal Police and the Hannover Police Directorate regarding the incident and the drone remained unanswered. A spokesperson for the German air traffic control service confirmed to the Süddeutsche Zeitung that flight operations were temporarily suspended for security reasons. The police chased a drone for two hours in the past night, according to Der Spiegel.
Updates
New details from S9 indicate the runways were closed for 90 minutes overnight between 3:44 a.m. and 5:20 a.m. on Monday, 10 August, with both runways and airspace affected, while Der Spiegel cited police saying it is currently impossible to link the incident to a prior explosives-laden drone discovery at Leipzig Airport a week earlier — though Der Stern reported investigators have a hot lead in that case.
New details from S9 indicate the runways were closed for 90 minutes overnight between 3:44 a.m. and 5:20 a.m. on Monday, 10 August, with both runways and airspace affected, while Der Spiegel cited police saying it remains impossible to link the incident to last week’s explosives-laden drone at Leipzig Airport, though investigators reportedly have a hot lead in that case.
New details from multiple sources indicate the drone-related closures at Hannover-Langenhagen Airport occurred between 3:44 a.m. and 5:20 a.m. on the night of August 10–11, totaling 90 minutes, and affected both runways and airspace; while some reports suggest a 'hybrid attack' scenario is under consideration, police say it is currently impossible to link the incident to last week’s explosives-laden drone discovery at Leipzig Airport, though investigators reportedly have a hot lead in that case.
Hannover Airport's runways were closed for 90 minutes between 3:44 a.m. and 5:20 a.m. on the night of August 10–11, affecting both runways and airspace, according to S9 and Der Spiegel; while authorities considered a 'hybrid attack' scenario, police confirmed it is currently impossible to link the incident to last week's explosives-laden drone discovery at Leipzig Airport, despite investigators following a hot lead in that case.
New details from S9 indicate the runways were closed for 90 minutes overnight between 3:44 a.m. and 5:20 a.m. on Monday, 10 August, with both runways and airspace affected, while Der Spiegel cited police stating it is currently impossible to link the incident to a prior explosives-laden drone discovery at Leipzig Airport one week earlier, though investigators reportedly have a hot lead in that case.
New details reveal the drone was first spotted before 4:00 a.m. by a DB Schenker worker and flew undetected for approximately two hours, evading Bundespolizei systems, while airport closures occurred in multiple short intervals between 3:44 a.m. and 5:20 a.m., totaling 90 minutes and affecting both runways and airspace; six passenger flights were delayed—including to Turkey, Egypt, Greece, and Spain—and a cargo plane from Paris was diverted to Nuremberg.
New details reveal the drone was first spotted before 4:00 a.m. by a DB Schenker worker and flew undetected for approximately two hours, evading Bundespolizei systems, while airport closures occurred in multiple short intervals between 3:44 a.m. and 5:20 a.m., totaling 90 minutes and affecting both runways and airspace; six passenger flights were delayed—including to Turkey, Egypt, Greece, and Spain—and a cargo plane from Paris was diverted to Nuremberg, with authorities still unable to link the incident to the recent Leipzig drone explosion, despite rising concerns over hybrid attack scenarios.
New details reveal the drone was first spotted before 4:00 a.m. by a DB Schenker worker and flew for approximately two hours undetected by Bundespolizei systems, with airport runways closed for 90 minutes across multiple brief interruptions between 3:44 a.m. and 5:20 a.m., affecting six passenger flights to Turkey, Egypt, Greece, and Spain, and diverting a cargo plane from Paris to Nuremberg.
New details reveal the drone was first spotted before 4:00 a.m. by a DB Schenker worker and flew undetected for approximately two hours, evading Bundespolizei systems, while airport closures occurred in multiple short intervals between 3:44 a.m. and 5:20 a.m., totaling 90 minutes; six passenger flights were delayed—including to Turkey, Egypt, Greece, and Spain—and a cargo plane from Paris was diverted to Nuremberg, with authorities acknowledging the incident’s connection to broader security concerns but unable to link it to the recent Leipzig explosives drone case.
