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Drone Sighting Halts Flights at Berlin’s BER for Nearly Two Hours

Officials loosened night-flight limits to reduce knock-on delays.

Overview

  • Airport operations were suspended from 20:08 to 21:58 local time before traffic gradually resumed with residual delays and some cancellations.
  • At least eleven inbound flights were diverted, including four to Dresden, four to Leipzig, three to Hamburg, with additional reroutes to Hannover and one to Bremen.
  • Several departures could not leave as scheduled, including flights bound for Basel, Oslo and Barcelona, and services to London, Birmingham and Stockholm were canceled.
  • A witness and a police patrol reported a drone near the airfield, prompting searches by ground units and a police helicopter, but no active device was subsequently observed.
  • The aviation authority granted a one-off waiver allowing takeoffs until 1 a.m. and landings until 4 a.m., as DFS data show a multi-year rise in drone disruptions near German airports.