Possible drone temporarily disrupts nighttime activity at Nuremberg airport

The sighting of an object that authorities believe could be a drone temporarily affected activity at Nuremberg airport, located in southern Germany, during the early hours of this Tuesday.

"Early on Tuesday morning there were alterations in the air traffic at the Albrecht Dürer Airport in Nuremberg," said in a statement the Police, which has taken charge of the investigation of the incident, in which the possible presence of a drone near the airport infrastructure is being studied.

"Between 02:00 and 04:00 hours (00:00 and 02:00 GMT), three pilots reported, independently of each other and during their respective landing or takeoff maneuvers, that they had sighted an object that could have been a drone," the Police said.

The Border Police Inspectorate at Nuremberg Airport, airport officials and the German Air Traffic Control Service took measures to clarify the events that caused interruptions in air traffic.

Nuremberg airport, which has just over four million users a year, according to data from 2024, reported, for its part, that the sighting of the drone could not be confirmed.

A total of six flights were affected by the measures taken by those responsible for the airport and the authorities, as four departures and two arrivals were delayed.

In early August, a drone loaded with explosives was discovered in the restricted access area for cargo operations at Leipzig airport, near several Ukrainian transport planes. A second device reportedly collided with a DHL cargo plane a few minutes later.

Germany later blamed Russia for this "hybrid attack" against a key airport infrastructure for the German Army, NATO and logistical support to Ukraine.

Berlin then announced the closure of the last remaining Russian consulate in Germany, located in Bonn, as well as that of a Russian cultural center in Berlin suspected of harboring spies. Russia responded by closing the German consulate in St. Petersburg.