{"id":10233,"date":"2026-08-10T19:03:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T19:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/10233\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T19:03:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T19:03:34","slug":"bus-driver-kicked-explosive-drone-out-of-the-air-at-german-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/10233\/","title":{"rendered":"Bus driver kicked explosive drone out of the air at German airport"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bus driver knocked an explosive-laden drone out of the air, potentially preventing an \u200cattack this week at a German airport<\/a> that serves as a major NATO and cargo logistics hub, a senior lawmaker said on Friday.<\/p>\n

The man spotted the drone flying low while he was working at Leipzig\/Halle airport late on Tuesday, then kicked it out of the air \u200bin what Detlef Seif described as a courageous but dangerous act.<\/p>\n

The drone, which prosecutors said was equipped \u200bwith professional explosives and a detonator, then crashed nearby, Seif, from the governing conservative CDU \u2060party, told journalists.<\/p>\n

Drone found near Ukrainian Antonovs<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors have launched a counterterrorism probe into what they say was \u200ba serious attack that could have impacted foreign and domestic security. The incursion was reported on Wednesday. Seif’s statement was \u200bthe most detailed account to date of how the drone was spotted and stopped.<\/p>\n

Authorities have not named the man or said where the drone came from and how it managed to get into a restricted part of the airport.<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice officers work in the vicinity of an Antonov cargo plane, near which a drone was found, at Leipzig\/Halle Airport in Schkeuditz, Germany, August 5, 2026. (credit: REUTERS\/AXEL SCHMIDT)<\/p>\n

Leipzig\/Halle is the main operational base for \u200bNATO’s Strategic Airlift International Solution, known as SALIS, which uses Antonovs to deliver equipment to strengthen the defense pact’s \u200beastern flank among other missions.<\/p>\n

It is also used by logistics companies including DHL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

German authorities have in the past accused Moscow of \u200ccarrying out \u2060hybrid attacks \u2014 incidents of aggression that fall short of acts of war.<\/p>\n

Moscow has denied those accusations. And Russia’s embassy in Berlin did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the Leipzig\/Halle drone incident.<\/p>\n

German media reported that the drone was found close to several Ukrainian Antonov An-124 cargo airplanes, among the world’s biggest freighters. A Reuters journalist \u200bsaw police collecting evidence near \u200bone of the planes early \u2060on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Driver praised<\/p>\n

“A bus driver kicked the drone away while it was flying low. It then crashed and came to rest on the ground,” Seif, who is \u200ba member of the parliamentary interior committee, said.<\/p>\n

“The bus driver’s action was very daring \u200band courageous, \u2060but also very dangerous. It is possible that his intervention prevented the intended attack.”<\/p>\n

Armin Schuster, the interior minister for the state of Saxony, where Leipzig\/Halle airport is located, praised the bus driver’s actions.<\/p>\n

“But it’s not a model to be emulated. Letting \u2060us know \u200bwould be enough,” Schuster told regional broadcaster MDR.<\/p>\n

Chancellor Friedrich Merz held \u200ba call to discuss the drone incident<\/a>, a government spokesperson said on Friday, adding that he was in constant contact with Interior Minister Alexander \u200bDobrindt and other cabinet members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bus driver knocked an explosive-laden drone out of the air, potentially preventing an \u200cattack this week at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5890,932,677,2357,32,866],"class_list":["post-10233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-counter-drone-tech","tag-defense-tech","tag-drone","tag-drone-attack","tag-germany","tag-ukraine-russia-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}