Danish police patrol at Copenhagen Airport, Denmark. (AP) The airspace above Denmark’s Aalborg Airport, which is used for commercial and military flights, has been shut after drones were spotted flying in the region nearby, police said on Thursday. This comes two days after Denmark’s capital Copenhagen airport was closed over drone sightings that raised security concerns in Europe.
Denmark’s national police has said that drones followed a similar pattern which was seen earlier at the Copenhagen airport where flights were halted for about four hours due to drone incursion in the airspace. Denmark’s National Police Commissioner Thorkild Fogde told CNN that police are yet to determine who is behind the drone incident and the agencies are investigating multiple drone related theories.
Fogde said that drone sightings were reported from three different airports across Denmark from Wednesday to Thursday morning, but only drone sightings in Aalborg airport could be verified. “Once again, we have verified these objects violating the airspace over the airport as drones,” the police commissioner added.
The police further added that there was no danger to residents in the area and to passengers at Aalborg airport. The authorities added that at least three flights had been diverted to other airports.
After the drone incident at the Copenhagen airport on Tuesday, the Denmark authorities said it was the most serious attack yet on its critical infrastructure and further linked it to a series of Russian drone incursions that have taken place across multiple countries in Europe, including Poland, Romania, Estonia causing disruptions.
Since Aalborg airport is also used as a military base, the closure of its airspace affected Denmark’s armed forces, police said. The Danish armed forces in a statement said they are cooperating with local and national police in the investigation. The Norway administration had also shut its airport in Oslo on Monday evening for three hours after a drone was spotted in the region, Reuters reported.
According to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the drones that halted flights at Copenhagen airport were part of a “pattern of persistent contestation at our borders.”
(with inputs from Reuters)
