Explosive Drone Sat for Hours Beside Ammunition-Laden An-124 at Leipzig, Undetected

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A drone rigged with a fist-sized package of suspected Semtex was discovered next to a Ukrainian Antonov freighter loaded with military ammunition at Leipzig/Halle airport, and only a technical malfunction appears to have prevented the device from detonating at one of Europe’s busiest cargo hubs.

The disclosure sharply raises the stakes of a counterterrorism investigation at an airport that Berlin has designated as critical infrastructure and that serves as a principal European base for NATO’s Strategic Airlift International Solution programme. The ammunition had been flown from France to Leipzig shortly beforehand and was likely intended for onward shipment.

For carriers, forwarders and insurers, the incident exposes a detection gap. The airport’s counter-drone sensor system did not pick up the aircraft, and Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the perpetrators had probably modified the drone to deliberately bypass protection systems.

Security camera footage shows the drone entered the airport perimeter from the south at about 19:28 and landed in a parking area. Airport staff spotted it hours later, at about 23:42, hovering at low altitude between two parked Antonov cargo aircraft. There was then contact between the drone and an employee, after which the drone ended up on the ground.

Bomb disposal specialists from the State Criminal Police Office of Saxony removed the detonator so the device could be examined. Analyses indicated the explosive was probably Semtex, a material with both military and industrial applications, and it was assessed as high military grade.

Germany’s Ministry of Defence said no Bundeswehr transport operations were under way at the airport at the time. Leipzig/Halle has hosted Ukraine’s Antonov transport fleet since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 destroyed the carrier’s home airport.

The discovery forced a temporary suspension of air traffic. A DHL freighter arriving from Marseille had to abort its landing and struck an object near the airport fence at a speed of about 500 km per hour. The object may have been another drone.

The aircraft, believed to be carrying dangerous goods, remained airworthy and diverted to Hanover, where experts found damage to its nose section. The crew has been questioned by Saxony’s state criminal police, and the flight recorder is due to be analysed as part of a wider forensic examination.

German authorities have named no suspect. European and Western officials suspect Russian involvement, although Berlin has not formally attributed responsibility.

The policy response is already taking shape. Dobrindt is due to host interior ministers from the Baltic states, Poland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark at a special summit on anti-drone defence in Flensburg at the end of August, a meeting likely to shape how European cargo gateways harden airside perimeters against low-altitude threats.