Unknown individuals fired at a C-130 transport aircraft taking off from Germany’s Celle Air Base in Lower Saxony last week, according to German news magazine Der Spiegel, which reported the incident on Tuesday.
Citing anonymous sources, Der Spiegel wrote that unknown individuals had fired pyrotechnics at the aircraft shortly after takeoff last Friday, Sept. 26, at around noon.
The aircraft was not hit and pilots immediately alerted the control tower, the magazine reported.
Following the incident, both the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) and local police have launched investigations.
The Bundeswehr noted that military aircrafts are only rarely fired upon, but emphasized that there have been repeated cases of pilots being temporarily blinded by laser pointers.
In July, Berlin publicly accused the Chinese military of aiming a laser at a German aircraft participating in an EU-led mission to safeguard marine traffic in the Red Sea.
Der Spiegel wrote that the pyrotechnics fired were New Year’s Eve rockets and said that the possibility of a targeted attack on the aircraft could not be ruled out. If suspects are located, they are set to face severe penalties.
In response to a query from Der Spiegel, Celle police said that they had initiated proceedings for dangerous interference with air traffic.
They added that the area around the air base had been searched with an explosives detection dog but that nothing relevant to the investigation had been found so far.
The police also clarified that due to the direction of travel of the firework rocket there was no concrete threat to the Air Force aircraft, but said that regardless they take such cases seriously due to the “sensitive situation.”
It comes amid heightened tensions after a series of Russian drone and aircraft incursions along NATO’s eastern flank this month, which targeted Poland and Estonia.
On Sept. 24, it was reported that a Russian military jet had flown twice over a German Navy frigate in the Baltic Sea, in what Defense Minister Boris Pistorius described as a provocation and a sign that Russia is testing NATO’s borders with increasing intensity, according to German newspaper Die Welt.
Some officials have warned that Russia is escalating a “hybrid war” against Europe through such incidents and have warned that attacks could continue on NATO soil.
Kyiv Post previously reported that Russian surveillance drones concentrated in Germany’s Thuringia region were suspected by German intelligence officials to be collecting critical data on the logistics of US and allied weapons shipments.