Shortly before midnight on Tuesday, an airport worker at Leipzig/Halle spotted something that should not have been there: a drone, sitting on the tarmac near the south runway, carrying an explosive device. It was resting a short distance from one of the largest aircraft in the world — a Ukrainian Antonov An-124.

Bomb-disposal teams moved in with a robot, removed the detonator and made the device safe. Nobody was hurt. But the incident, at one of Europe’s busiest cargo hubs, has rattled German officials — and put a spotlight on how exposed even the giants of the sky can be on the ground.

Why the An-124 matters

The Antonov An-124 Ruslan is a strategic heavy-lifter — a four-engined freighter that can swallow locomotives, turbines and other outsized cargo few aircraft on Earth can carry. Leipzig/Halle has become a key base for Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines fleet, which shuttles relief supplies, commercial freight and aid across the continent. An aircraft like that, parked and vulnerable, is about as symbolic and valuable a target as exists outside a war zone.

A tense few hours

Both runways were closed and several flights, including a passenger service, were diverted while crews dealt with the object. Authorities later said they were also searching for parts of a possible second drone; a separate flying object is reported to have struck a freighter that had aborted its landing because the runway was shut, and that aircraft diverted to Hannover with slight damage. The north runway reopened after about two hours, and daytime operations were unaffected.

German officials were blunt about what it represents. Who was behind it has not been established — the government is treating it as a possible “hybrid attack” and says the culprits are a matter for the ongoing investigation.

A new kind of vulnerability

Airports already worry about drones buzzing approach paths and forcing runway closures. A drone that lands beside a parked aircraft with a live charge is a different problem entirely — cheap, quiet, and aimed at the moment an aircraft is least able to defend itself. For the operators of the world’s heavy-lift fleets, the message is uncomfortable: the danger is no longer only in the air.

To appreciate what was at stake, watch an An-124 swallow and disgorge outsized cargo — the sort of capability that makes the type nearly irreplaceable:

Sources: Associated Press via NPR, The War Zone, CNN, airlive.net.