An airport employee at Leipzig Airport found a quadcopter carrying explosives near an Ukrainian An-24 cargo plane on Wednesday, Aug. 5. Police confirmed the drone transported an explosive device in the airport cargo aviation area, where it lay a few meters from the aircraft.
The Guardian security editor Dan Sabbagh reported that the drone is most likely linked to Russian saboteurs. Sabbagh noted that the incident marks the first discovery of an explosive-laden drone in Europe far from the Ukrainian border.
Leipzig Airport serves as the European base for Ukrainian An-24 transport planes that move heavy cargo, and operates as a transfer point for shipments to Kyiv. Sabbagh recalled earlier drone incidents over important European facilities that Russia may be behind.
Explosive Composition and Potential Impact
Citing German journalists, Sabbagh reported the bomb attached to the drone contained PETN, also known as pentrite, alongside about 800 grams of Semtex plastic explosive. The bomb did not explode because its detonator malfunctioned.
Cranfield University explosives expert Trevor Lawrence said 800 grams of explosive is enough to cause significant damage to an aircraft because plane hulls consist of aluminum sheets only about 3 millimeters thick. It remains unknown where the explosive was manufactured, though Semtex was invented in the Czech Republic. Sabbagh wrote that plastic explosives are only available to military forces or well-organized terrorist groups.
International Institute for Strategic Studies senior research fellow Charlie Edwards said no similar emergency events had occurred before. Edwards noted that a drone carrying a charge with a failed detonator differs from previous incidents, adding that the device was likely intended to detonate rather than be discovered.
