Suspected sabotage almost caused German plane crash, says spy chief

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Germany narrowly avoided a plane crash earlier this year after a parcel destined for an aircraft’s hold burst into flames before the flight in a suspected act of sabotage, one of the country’s spy chiefs has said as he warned of a dramatic increase in “aggressive behaviour” by Russian agents.

Thomas Haldenwang, head of Germany’s domestic intelligence service, said that only a lucky coincidence meant that the package caught fire on the ground at a DHL logistics centre in Leipzig and not in mid-air. He did not say if it was a passenger or freight plane.

Haldenwang told a parliamentary committee at the German Bundestag that if the package had ignited during the flight, “it would have resulted in a crash”.

While he did not name the suspected perpetrators, the German news agency DPA said security services were working on the assumption that the attack was connected to Russia. It was not clear to whom the parcel was sent.

Appearing before members of parliament, Haldenwang and other German spy chiefs issued the latest western warning that the Kremlin had significantly stepped up its destabilisation efforts, with attempted acts of espionage and sabotage increasing “both quantitatively and qualitatively” in Germany.

“We are observing aggressive behaviour by the Russian intelligence services,” he said, adding that Moscow was “putting people’s lives at risk”. He warned: “It affects all areas of our free society.”

Bruno Kahl, head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service, said the Kremlin’s willingness to take covert action had reached a “previously unknown level”. 

Putin was likely to “test the west’s red lines”, he added, saying that there was a large risk of further escalation in the stand-off between Nato and Russia following Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

Martina Rosenberg, head of the Germany’s military counter-intelligence service, said she was alarmed by attempts by foreign intelligence services to spy on the country’s armed forces. 

Rosenberg said there were efforts to glean information about German arms deliveries to Ukraine, as well as training projects. Germany is one of the biggest international suppliers of weapons to Kyiv and is also home to a series of camps where Ukrainian soldiers learn to operate western military equipment. Moscow, she added, was also seeking to “create a sense of insecurity through acts of sabotage”.

The revelations by the German spy chiefs follow similar warnings from other western intelligence agencies about the activities of Russia and other hostile states on European soil. 

The head of Britain’s MI5, Ken McCallum, said last week that Russia was on a “mission to generate mayhem” on Britain’s streets and that Iran was fomenting lethal plots at “an unprecedented pace and scale”.

Western officials have sounded the alarm about a series of suspected Russian sabotage attempts this year. In March, a London warehouse belonging to a company linked to Ukraine caught fire in a suspected arson attack. In May, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accused Moscow of being behind a fire in a shopping centre in Warsaw. 

Germany has also been subjected to a series of suspected or attempted attacks. In April, two suspected Russian agents were arrested over alleged plans to carry out arson and bombings on military targets and arms factories.

In August, a military base in western Germany was sealed off for several hours after a suspected attempt to contaminate its supply of drinking water.

One of the most serious incidents was an alleged plan to assassinate Armin Papperger, chief executive of the German weapons producer Rheinmetall, whose company has supplied artillery shells and military vehicles to Ukraine. The plot was discovered by US intelligence.