LANGEN (dpa-AFX) - Drones continued to obstruct civil air traffic in German airspace in 2023, the year just ended. With 151 cases, German Air Traffic Control (DFS) recorded the third-highest number of hazards after 2018 (158 cases) and 2022 (152 cases). In the coronavirus period, there were fewer drone sightings in the vicinity of civil aircraft or flight facilities.

84 obstructions, or 56 percent of the current cases, occurred near larger airports, as DFS announced on Friday in Langen near Frankfurt on request. With 21 cases each, the airports in Frankfurt and Leipzig-Halle were the most affected. Berlin followed with 15 drone sightings. There was a significant drop to 7 cases in Hamburg, which had the second most sightings in 2022.

Air traffic control assumes that regular air traffic is impeded as soon as a drone is sighted because controllers and pilots could be distracted. This is where the majority of reports come from. In Germany, drone flights are prohibited in the vicinity of airport take-off and landing areas - a distance of at least 1.5 kilometers must be maintained. Under criminal law, drone flights at airports are considered a dangerous interference with air traffic and are punishable by prison sentences of up to ten years./ceb/DP/mis