A cargo plane was forced to make an emergency landing after colliding with an object shortly after takeoff. Investigators in Germany are trying to determine whether the collision on Wednesday is connected to a drone found nearby at Leipzig-Halle airport the previous night. The DHL jet hit the unidentified object as it took off from the airport, forcing it to make an emergency landing in Hanover and causing several other flights to be rerouted. Newspaper Bild reported that the plane had minor damage to its nose. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Leipzig-Halle has become a key base for Kyiv’s Antonov Airlines fleet. On Tuesday night, a drone was also spotted near an Antonov transport plane, according to German News agency DPA. Security sources said the quadcopter drone was carrying explosives. “We’ve got plans for cases like this, and we’ll try to make sure that the influence on our customers will be as low as possible,” said DHL boss Tobias Meyer. It is just the latest in a series of strange incidents across Europe since the start of the war in Ukraine, which has included drones and mysterious fires.
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