Munich Airport was temporarily closed last night following reports of drones buzzing around the area.

According to the airport’s press office, “German air traffic control (DFS) restricted flight operations at Munich Airport from 10:18 p.m. and later suspended them altogether due to several drone sightings.”

As a result, 17 flights were barred from taking off that evening, leaving almost 3,000 passengers stranded. Another 15 incoming flights were diverted to alternative airports.

Flight operations resumed this morning, but some passengers had to stay in the terminal overnight, where camp beds, snacks, and drinks were provided.

Munich is on edge at the moment. The Oktoberfest beer festival is in full swing, to the point where the entrances had to be briefly closed due to overcrowding. A bomb scare also called a halt to proceedings on Wednesday.

Drone sightings around the airport were enough to trigger a shutdown, although the machines had left by the time the Federal Police arrived with drone defense equipment.

The number and size of the drones are unclear, but some reports suggest there were six. It is obviously challenging to spot the devices visually at night.

Officials are growing increasingly jumpy about drone incidents in Europe. Sightings in Denmark last month, for example, disrupted airports and airbases.

Setting aside espionage and military incursions into airspace, drones around airports can pose a danger to aircraft. The consequences of one colliding with an aircraft range from minor to catastrophic. Hence, aircraft are grounded until the situation is resolved.

As the 2018 incident at Gatwick Airport in the UK demonstrated, it is also possible for drone paranoia to get out of hand. Just before Christmas, all flights from the airport were suspended after drones were apparently spotted over the airspace. Later reports suggested that the sightings might have been inaccurate, but not before the travel plans of thousands of passengers were disrupted.

A lot has changed since the Gatwick incident, and with tensions running high on the continent it is easy to attribute nefarious motives to drone sightings, particularly around airports. However, banning civilian drone flights, as Denmark did last week ahead of a Copenhagen Summit, could be regarded as an overreaction. After all, in the UK, operators of most drones and model aircraft are required to hold a license, and the regulations regarding their use are clear.

The abrupt closure of Munich Airport and other incidents around Europe will add weight to arguments for tougher restrictions and better detection methods, but the justification for deploying military-grade anti-drone measures needs to be greater than somebody seeing some unusual shapes in the sky. ®