The Ukrainian Antonov freighter standing next to an explosive drone at Leipzig/Halle Airport was carrying military ammunition, according to a confidential police report, meaning a successful detonation could have caused a far more serious incident.
German media report that the An-124 had recently arrived from France with munitions intended for onward transport. The Süddeutsche Zeitung, NDR and WDR, which first reported the contents of the document on August 6, said the drone had been found beside cargo aircraft operated by Antonov Airlines.
The drone, fitted with a package of what tests indicate was a significant Semtex explosive and a detonator, was found only metres away on the apron. The device failed to explode because the detonator had detached or malfunctioned. Federal police specialists later defused the find and destroyed the charge in a controlled detonation on the southern apron.
The drone was first noticed at about 11.42pm on August 4 hovering between Ukrainian Antonov aircraft near the runway known as the Südpiste. Investigators believe it had been in the airport area for several hours before it was seen.
A ground-handling employee driving a passenger bus after an airport tour spotted the low-flying craft, left the vehicle, forced it to the ground and held it until security arrived. Federal police immediately classified the object as an unconventional explosive and incendiary device.
Flight operations were suspended; the northern runway later reopened while forensic work continued on the southern side. A passenger aircraft and several freighters were diverted to other airports.
The drone was equipped with 800 grammes of Semtex, according to security sources cited by Bild and ntv. Federal police and Saxony’s state criminal police office have not confirmed the type of explosive and their analysis is continuing.
Semtex was also used in the Lockerbie attack on a Boeing 747 of Pan Am in 1988, where 340 to 450 grammes of the material brought down the aircraft. All 259 people on board and 11 on the ground were killed.
Leipzig/Halle is Germany’s second-largest cargo airport and a major European logistics hub. It is a principal European base for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s Strategic Airlift International Solution (SALIS) programme, under which nine allies hold assured access to An-124 aircraft through the NATO Support and Procurement Agency.
The airport has been the main base of Antonov Airlines outside Ukraine since the company’s fleet was moved there in February 2022, after its Hostomel hub near Kyiv was overrun in the opening days of the Russian invasion. It regularly handles military and dual-use cargo linked to support for Ukraine, including Bundeswehr equipment.
A separate DHL freighter was unable to land because of the closure and struck an unidentified object as it climbed away, about six kilometres from the airport at a height of 400 metres. It landed safely at Hanover. Investigators are examining whether a second drone was involved.
German interior minister Alexander Dobrindt has described the episode as a “new quality of threat” and a hybrid attack scenario, saying a drone carrying explosives at an airport represented a “new threat scenario”.
He said counter-drone equipment installed at German airports had not worked in this case. “According to our current findings, that is because this drone was deliberately designed to be able to circumvent existing drone defence measures,” he said, adding that those behind it might already know what protective systems are in place.
Dobrindt did not name Russia, referring instead to “foreign powers” that wanted to unsettle Germany. Security researcher Peter Neumann said Moscow was the obvious main suspect and warned that declining to name a suspected attacker sends a signal of weakness. Christian Democratic Union politician Roderich Kiesewetter told the Augsburger Allgemeine he assumed the incident was an attempted terrorist act directed by Russia. No evidence of authorship has been made public.
Green parliamentary leader Katharina Dröge has called for an immediate meeting of the National Security Council, describing the episode as a serious hybrid attack that would amount to State terrorism if a state actor were behind it.
Because the device did not explode, investigators retain physical evidence that would otherwise have been destroyed. Forensic teams can examine the wiring, components and assembly of the charge for a signature that can be compared with known methods, and technicians may be able to recover data from the quadcopter’s flight controller. Serial numbers and modified firmware can help establish where the aircraft was bought or altered.
The investigation is being led by the Dresden general public prosecutor’s office with Saxony’s state criminal police office and the federal police counter-terrorism and extremism centre. No group has claimed responsibility and no arrests have been announced.
Airports including Berlin, Munich, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Leipzig/Halle and Cologne/Bonn are still waiting for detection and counter-drone systems promised by the interior ministry, according to Ralph Beisel, head of the German airports association ADV.
