Tuesday, September 23rd saw airports in Copenhagen and Oslo reopened after unidentified Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) entered their airspace, causing several hours of flight diversions and travel disruptions.
Police in the Danish capital said that multiple large drones spotted over the airport for several hours on Monday night ultimately departed without intervention.
Deputy Police Inspector Jakob Hansen told reporters
The drones have disappeared and the airport is open again … We didn’t take the drones down.
Hansen said police were working with the Danish military and intelligence services to determine the origin of the drones, while also coordinating with colleagues in Oslo, where similar sightings had forced the airport to shut down for several hours.
“We had two different drone sightings,” Oslo airport spokeswoman Monica Fasting claimed.
“We reopened the airport around 3:15 a.m. (0115 GMT),” she added.
The incidents followed recent accusations by Poland, Estonia, and Romania that Russia had violated their airspace—claims Moscow has denied. On Tuesday, Danish police said they did not know who was behind the drone activity over Copenhagen airport the previous evening, but noted the operator appeared to be skilled.
“The number, size, flight patterns, time over the airport. All this together…indicates that it is a capable actor. Which capable actor, I do not know,” police inspector Jens Jespersen told reporters.
The airport remained closed for several hours before reopening early Tuesday, leading to delays and travel disruptions that affected around 20,000 passengers, officials said.
