Major airports in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Oslo, Norway, faced flight disruptions on Monday and early Tuesday after multiple drones were spotted near the airspace, forcing temporary closures and diverting dozens of flights. Copenhagen Airport was closed around 8:30 pm local time after two to three “unidentified” drones were observed in the area, an airport spokesperson said. “No aircraft can take off or land at the airport, and as a result, several flights are being diverted to other airports. The police are investigating the matter, and we currently have no timeline for reopening,” airport spokeswoman Lise Agerley Kurstein told AFP.As of late Monday night, aviation tracking website Flightradar24 reported more than 50 flights diverted. Some incoming flights were rerouted to other airports in Denmark, while others were sent to Gothenburg and Malmö in Sweden. The airport reopened around 12:20 am local time (6:20 pm ET) but delays and cancellations continued into Tuesday.Copenhagen police duty officer Anette Ostenfeldt told AFP that “three or four big drones” were still flying over the airport. “They are still flying back and forth, coming and going,” she said, adding, “But they are bigger than what you as a private individual can buy.”
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In Oslo, the airspace over the airport was temporarily closed Tuesday morning following another drone sighting. “This means that incoming flights are now being redirected to the nearest airport,” Communication Manager Monica Iren Fasting told CNN. Police said two foreign nationals were arrested for flying drones over a restricted area near Akershus Fortress, although there was no indication the incident was linked to Copenhagen. European authorities have been on high alert after Russian drones violated Polish and Romanian airspace earlier this month, prompting Nato allies to strengthen eastern defenses. There is currently no evidence that Monday’s drone activity in Denmark or Norway is connected to those incidents. The disruption comes after a weekend of travel issues at major European airports, including a cyberattack affecting check-in systems. Drone sightings have previously caused major chaos in Europe, such as at Gatwick Airport near London in 2018, where repeated drone activity stranded tens of thousands of passengers and disrupted hundreds of flights.
Denmark says faces ‘high threat of sabotage’ after drones shut airport
Earlier in the day, Danish intelligence said that Denmark was facing a “high threat of sabotage,” after large drones flew over Copenhagen airport for hours, causing it to shut down.“We are facing a high threat of sabotage in Denmark. Someone may not necessarily want to attack us, but rather stress us out and see how we react,” Flemming Drejer, Director of Operations at Denmark’s intelligence service PET, told a press conference.Denmark police earlier said they did not know who was behind the drones, but that evidence suggested it was a “capable actor.”
