COPENHAGEN — Airports in Copenhagen and Oslo reopened on Tuesday, hours after unidentified drones of their airspace triggered dozens of flights to be diverted or canceled, disrupting tens of 1000’s of passengers.
Danish police stated that drones that shut the nation’s primary airport appeared to have been flown by “a succesful operator” searching for to exhibit sure talents, including that no suspects had been recognized.
“We have now concluded that this was what we might name a succesful operator,” Danish police Chief Superintendent Jens Jespersen advised reporters.
“It’s an actor who has the capabilities, the desire and the instruments to point out off on this approach,” Jespersen stated, including that it was too early to say if the incidents in Denmark and Norway have been linked.
Danish police declined to touch upon a publish on X by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky that Russia was behind the Copenhagen airspace violation. He didn’t present proof.
“I can’t say something about that. It’s not as a result of I don’t wish to, it’s as a result of I merely don’t know,” Jespersen stated.
Naviair Director Morten Fruensgaard, left, police inspector Jens Jespersen, centre, and operations supervisor at Naviair Kristoffer Plenge-Brandt maintain a joint press convention at police headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, after drones have been seen on Monday night close to Copenhagen Airport and the airspace over Copenhagen was closed for 4 hours into Tuesday. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix by way of AP)
Denmark’s overseas ministry didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The Russian embassy in Copenhagen didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark made by cellphone and e-mail.
Germany and different European nations in recent times have opened investigations into repeated drone flights over crucial infrastructure that raised suspicions of espionage.
Got here from a number of instructions, then disappeared
Copenhagen Airport was closed for 4 hours when two or three giant drones have been seen flying in its fast neighborhood, officers stated, whereas the Oslo Airport was closed for 3 hours following two sightings, in keeping with native police.
Jespersen stated the drones in Denmark got here from a number of completely different instructions, turning their lights on and off, earlier than finally disappearing after a number of hours.
Police have been investigating a number of hypotheses concerning the origin of the drones, together with that they might have been launched from ships, Jespersen stated.
Denmark’s primary airport is situated near a busy transport lane the place vessels enter and exit the Baltic Sea.
Copenhagen diverted 31 flights to different airports, inflicting ripple results that delayed or cancelled round 100 flights and affected some 20,000 passengers, a spokesperson advised reporters on Tuesday.
There was a sequence of disruptions at European airports in latest days.
A cyberattack final Friday knocked out check-in and boarding methods equipped by Collins Aerospace, a unit of RTX, affecting operations at London’s Heathrow and the Berlin and Brussels airports. Over the weekend and into Monday, the fallout continued to snarl journey throughout the area.
