Flights at Munich Airport resumed on Saturday after a roughly one-hour suspension prompted by a suspected drone sighting, an airport spokesman said. Both runways are back in operation.
Air traffic had been temporarily halted shortly after 9:00 a.m. According to Germany's federal police, the closure was triggered by a suspicious observation made by two pilots, who believed they had seen drones.
In coordination with German air traffic control, security authorities decided to close the runways, a police spokesman told AFP, adding at the time that it was not possible to say how long the closure would last.
In response, authorities deployed a police helicopter, among other measures, to search the airport grounds for any drones. "Nothing was found," the federal police spokesman said, noting that an extensive search turned up no threat. The closure was lifted at 10:05 a.m.
Departures delayed by the temporary shutdown are now being cleared. "Now the queues are being worked through," a spokesman for the airport operator said.
About 20 aircraft that had been due to land in Munich were diverted to other airports because of the closure, including Frankfurt am Main, Nuremberg and Vienna. The airlines will now decide whether to fly back to Munich after all.
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