Because of the sighting of a drone, Frankfurt Airport had to stop all traffic for half an hour on Friday. Starting at 5:15 pm, there would have been no takeoffs and landings for 30 minutes, the Fraport airport company announced on Twitter.

The drone was seen in the south of the site, the flight operations were then set until the situation was clarified by the Federal Police. According to German air traffic control, the federal police made a helicopter in search of the drone, but could not sift it.

In the southern area of ​​the airport today two drones were spotted. It was as always Safety First! Flight operations were stopped immediately, until the situation was clarified by BPol. There were no takeoffs and landings for 30 minutes. Flight operation is back to normal. NO chaos!

- Frankfurt Airport (@Airport_FRA) March 22, 2019

Meanwhile, the flight operations are back to normal, it said on Twitter. There was no mess. First, Fraport had reported on two drones, the number was later corrected to a drone.

In Frankfurt, about 60 flights were canceled that day from 1439 flights until the evening, most of them in connection with a computer breakdown in the Langen air traffic control center. Because of the drone further delays were added, said a Fraport spokesman.

At London's largest Heathrow airport, air traffic has been interrupted several times in recent months due to drone sightings. Once, about 120,000 passengers were affected.

Drone sightings at airports are increasing

Federal Police President Dieter Romann had warned that this could happen at any time at German airports. In his view, there are currently no suitable defense systems that could safely detect, identify or contain drones in urban areas.

In the past year, German air traffic control had registered 158 impairments of regular air traffic by drones - about 80 percent more than in 2017. 125 of the cases had been reported in the metropolitan area of ​​airports. Most of the disruptions were in Frankfurt / Main (31), followed by Berlin-Tegel (17), Munich (14) and Hamburg (12).

In Germany, drone flights over the take-off and landing area are prohibited at airports - as well as over crowds, hospitals, prisons, authorities, highways or railways. Where drones are allowed, the devices must remain in sight during the flight and must not fly higher than 100 meters. There are exceptions at model airfields.