A drone carrying what German authorities believe was the plastic explosive Semtex was found hovering between two parked cargo aircraft at Leipzig airport shortly before midnight on August 4. Plastic explosive is a detonator-triggered material: it requires a separate ignition device to set it off, and without that trigger it stays inert. The detonator on this device failed, and German police disarmed the drone.
What the airport employee found
An airport worker spotted the drone hovering close to the ground, positioned between two An-124 cargo aircraft belonging to Ukraine's Antonov Airlines. Alexander Dobrindt, Germany's federal minister of the interior, described the payload at a press conference as a fist-sized package of a substance believed to be Semtex. He added that the drone had been modified to avoid detection by the airport's drone defense sensors, meaning it had been deliberately adapted to get past Leipzig airport's automated protective systems before anyone could intercept it.
How close it came
A failed detonator was the only thing that prevented an explosion beside the parked Ukrainian planes, Dobrindt said. The device had real explosive material on board and had been built to reach the aircraft unseen. German police removed and disarmed it after the airport worker raised the alarm.
A second drone under investigation
Authorities are also looking into whether a second drone was in the area. An aircraft approaching Leipzig airport collided with something in the air around the same time the first device was discovered, prompting officials to investigate whether another drone had been deployed. No second device has been publicly confirmed.