Overview
- Flights were suspended from 20:08 to 21:58 after a witness and a police patrol reported a drone near BER, with searches including a police helicopter.
- At least 11 inbound flights were diverted—four to Dresden, four to Leipzig and three to Hamburg—with additional reroutings to Hannover and Bremen, and several departures delayed or canceled.
- Regulators temporarily eased night restrictions to clear backlogs, allowing departures until 2 a.m. and landings through the night; five late-night departures used the waiver.
- Regular service resumed Friday night and the airport reported no ongoing impairments on Saturday morning as schedules normalized.
- The airport association ADV labeled the incident a security wake-up call and Berlin’s interior senator backed a central drone-defense center, while the drone’s origin remains under investigation and DFS reports rising incidents nationwide.