Incidents involving drones are increasing again

There were more drone accidents in German airspace this year than in previous years marked by COVID-19.

The German air traffic control (DFS) has registered 150 disruptions in air traffic in the past eleven months, as reported by fvw.de. That was just two fewer than in the same period of the previous record year 2018. In the first 11 months of 2021 there were 127 dangerous incidents. 80 percent of the disruptions this year occurred in the vicinity of larger commercial airports, with 26 incidents being registered at Germany's largest airport in Frankfurt alone. Hamburg follows with 17 and Berlin with 14 reports, ahead of Munich and Leipzig/Halle with ten each. In Germany, drone flights are prohibited near the take-off and landing areas of airports - a distance of at least 1,5 kilometers must be maintained. Drone flights at airports are criminally considered a dangerous interference in air traffic and are punishable with imprisonment of up to ten years.