In the first half of the year, drones disrupted air traffic 19 times around the Saxon airports of Leipzig/Halle and Dresden. Eighteen unauthorized drones were spotted at Leipzig Airport, and one incident occurred in Dresden. The German Air Traffic Control (DFS) reported this in response to an inquiry from the German Press Agency.
According to the DFS drone report, Berlin Airport saw the most disruptions in the first six months, with 28 cases, followed by Frankfurt (27) and Bremen (23).
Nationwide, air traffic control recorded 145 instances of air traffic disruption caused by unauthorized drones. Ninety percent of the cases occurred in the vicinity of airports, even though drone flights are prohibited within a 1.5-kilometer radius of airports.
“The majority of these incidents are reported by pilots during flight; other cases are detected by air traffic controllers in the control tower,” said DFS spokesperson Marian Günther.
