Airports in Denmark and Norway close after "large drones" spotted
Airports in Copenhagen and Oslo were forced to close on the evening of 22 September after the airspace over the Danish and Norwegian capitals was violated by unidentified drones.
Source: Reuters; Swedish outlet Aftonbladet; Norwegian outlet Verdens Gang
Details: Copenhagen police reported that two to three large drones were involved. A large-scale police operation is underway at the scene.
Several flights were cancelled, while others were diverted to Malmö Airport.
An airport spokesperson confirmed to Reuters that all air traffic had been stopped but declined to comment further.
Update: One plane was forced to make an emergency landing at around 23:00 local time despite the airspace being closed because it did not have enough fuel to be redirected to another airport.
A similar situation arose in the Norwegian capital. At around 21:00 local time, drones were detected over a military facility – the Akershus Fortress in Oslo. Norwegian police launched an operation in response and reported that two Singaporean nationals had been detained in connection with the incident.
Later, at 23:30, several drones were also sighted over Oslo’s Gardermoen Airport. Initially, all flights were diverted to one runway, but the airport was closed completely after another drone appeared an hour later.
Verdens Gang quoted airport communications manager Monica Fasting as saying: "The airspace over Oslo Airport has been closed after another drone was detected."
Background:
- On 19 September, three MiG-31 interceptors entered Estonian airspace and remained there for around 12 minutes.
- Later the same day, Poland reported that two Russian aircraft had flown at low altitude over the Petrobaltic oil platform in the Baltic Sea, violating the security zone above the facility.
- On 21 September, two German Eurofighter jets were scrambled in response to a Russian Il-20M reconnaissance aircraft flying over the Baltic Sea.
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