Drone with explosives found at German airport, official sees 'new quality' of threat

A forensic technician works alongside a bomb-disposal robot near a Ukrainian aircraft at Leipzig/Halle Airport, where a drone with an explosive device was found and a detonator was removed from the object, in Schkeuditz, Germany, Wednesday Aug. 5, 2026. Hendrik Schmidt/DPA via AP hide caption toggle caption Hendrik Schmidt/DPA via AP BERLIN — A drone with explosives was found at Germany's Leipzig/Halle Airport and the device was defused, authorities said Wednesday, in an incident that the country's top security official said posed a "new quality of danger." Both the runways at the major freight hub were closed and several flights, including one passenger plane, were diverted to other airports after a flying object was sighted nearby shortly before midnight Tuesday. An anti-explosives robot was deployed to check an object near the south runway. Regional police and prosecutors later said an airport employee discovered a drone near the airport's south runway with "an unknown explosive device," and the object was examined by police. They removed its detonator. That the drone was carrying explosives "is a new quality of danger," German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told reporters...