Airports in Denmark closed for second time in three days due to drones

Several Danish airports suspended operations overnight on Sept. 24-25 following reports of drones in the area. Restrictions on takeoffs and landings affected the airports of Aalborg, Esbjerg, and Sønderborg, along with the Skrydstrup air base, which hosts F-16 and F-35 fighter jets. In the morning, airspace over Billund Airport was also closed for an hour. All airports have since resumed arrivals and departures. A police investigation is being conducted in cooperation with the Danish army and intelligence services.

The police received the first report of several unidentified drones over Aalborg Airport at 9:44 p.m. The airport suspended departures and arrivals until 6 a.m. As a result, three flights were canceled, and another three were diverted to other airports. The last drone sighting was recorded at 00:54 a.m., after which the drones left the airport area. Police were unable to take down the drones or identify their operators.

“We were unable to shoot down the drones, which were flying over a very large area for several hours. At the moment, we have not detained the drone operators, but it is clear that the next step will be to examine all the evidence and observations we have collected,” stated Jesper Bøjgård Madsen, head of police in North Jutland. According to Madsen, residents were not in danger, but the airport area was nevertheless cordoned off.

At 4:21 a.m., the airspace over Billund was closed for an hour. According to police, illegal activity could only be partially confirmed: the last drone sighting was registered at 2:08 a.m. In the morning, the airports resumed operations, avoiding major schedule disruptions.

This is already the second incident in three days. On the evening of Sept. 22, Copenhagen Airport was shut down for more than four hours: 51 flights were diverted and 109 canceled. A similar situation occurred in Oslo, Norway, where the airport was also closed for several hours.

Copenhagen police reported that they are investigating the incident together with the intelligence service (PET), the military, and international partners. Investigators are collecting digital and physical data, reviewing CCTV camera footage, and tracking the movement of vessels and aircraft in the airport area. In just the first 24 hours, they received more than a hundred reports from residents regarding drones or similar objects.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called the situation “the most severe attack on infrastructure so far” and did not rule out Russian involvement.

At the time of the attack, at least three vessels linked to Russia were near the Danish capital. These included the Russian cargo ship Astrol 1, which is under U.S. sanctions; the Norwegian Oslo Carrier 3, with crew members holding Russian passports; and the Pushpa, a tanker flagged in Benin that had been previously detained in Estonia over connections to Russia’s “shadow fleet.” Danish police do not rule out that the drones may have been launched from passing ships.