Airport Closure in Denmark After Suspected Drone Sightings

SadaNews - A Danish airport was briefly closed again, as reported by police and local media, after suspected drone activity, following the Prime Minister's classification of similar incidents this week as "hybrid attacks."

The Danish Broadcasting Corporation quoted an airport official saying that the airspace over Aalborg Airport in northern Denmark was closed around 11:40 PM Thursday (21:40 UTC) due to reports of drones in the area.

Later, the regional police announced in a statement on "X" that the closure was decided due to suspected drone activity, confirming the reopening of the airspace at about 12:35 AM Friday.

It was not immediately clear whether authorities had verified the presence of any drones. Flight tracking sites and airline websites indicated that the closure forced a KLM flight from Amsterdam to turn back and caused a Scandinavian Airlines flight from the Danish capital Copenhagen to be canceled.

Danish police reported sightings of drones on Wednesday and Thursday at Aalborg (north), Esbjerg (west), Sonderborg, and Skridstrup Air Base in the south before leaving those sites.

This incident led to the closure of Aalborg Airport for several hours.

Additionally, the sighting of drones led to the closure of Copenhagen Airport earlier this week.

These events followed a similar incident in Norway and drone breaches of the airspace of Poland and Romania, as well as the alleged incursion of Russian fighter jets into Estonian airspace.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen stated in a video message on social media Thursday that the country was a "victim of hybrid attacks," referring to a form of unconventional warfare.

While investigators have yet to determine the identity of those behind these incidents, Frederiksen noted that Russia is the "main country posing a threat to Europe's security."

Moscow has strongly denied any insinuation of its involvement in the events in Denmark, which its embassy in Copenhagen described as a "staged provocation."