German authorities are investigating the incident as a suspected hybrid attack after the drone was discovered at the NATO logistics hub.
A police officer in protective clothing works at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Schkeuditz, Germany, Aug 5, 2026. (Photo: REUTERS/Axel Schmidt)
07 Aug 2026 02:15AM
FRANKFURT: A senior German lawmaker said on Thursday (Aug 6) that aircraft parked near where an explosives-laden drone was discovered at an airport this week were not loaded with military material, denying media reports that one of them was carrying ammunition.Newspaper the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, together with public television broadcasters NDR and WDR, had cited a confidential police report as saying a Ukrainian cargo aircraft near the drone was transporting a payload of military ammunition.They also reported that forensic experts had found that the explosives attached to the drone were of a high military grade.Detlef Seif, a lawmaker from the governing conservatives and member of the parliamentary interior committee, told Reuters that, without exception, information he had received indicated "the planes were not loaded with ammunition or weapons".
Airport workers discovered the drone late on Tuesday at Leipzig/Halle Airport, an important cargo and NATO logistics hub in eastern Germany.The newspaper Bild cited unnamed investigators as saying that a technical defect prevented the drone-mounted device from exploding.Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt described the incident as a hybrid attack, and German authorities have launched a counterterrorism investigation.Police in the state of Saxony, where Leipzig/Halle is located, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the media reports about the aircraft's payload. The state's public prosecutors' office could not immediately be reached for comment.
