An international airport had to shut down its operations due to the presence of drones in the vicinity, causing significant disruptions on Monday evening. Police were alerted to the sighting of up to three UAVs in the airspace over Copenhagen Airport in Denmark, prompting a strong law enforcement presence in the area, as stated by Henrik Stormer, the head of the Copenhagen Police.
The airport ceased take-offs and landings around 8:30 pm local time, as confirmed by Naviair, the company responsible for air traffic control at the airport. According to a tweet by FlightRadar on Twitter, by 10:05 pm local time (8:05 pm UTC), more than 35 flights scheduled to land at Copenhagen Airport had to be redirected to other airports due to the drone activity.
A social media update from the local police indicated, “[The airport] is presently not operational for take-off and landing due to 2-3 large drones observed in the vicinity. The duration of this closure remains uncertain.”
The majority of the diverted flights were rerouted to Malmö, Billund, Aarhus, and Gothenburg. The origin of the drones has not been determined yet.
A spokesperson from Copenhagen Airport verified that the airspace above the airport was closed off due to unidentified drone activity. Reuters was informed by the spokesperson that the police are investigating the situation, and there is currently no estimated time for the airport to resume normal operations.
This incident follows a recent near-collision between a passenger jet and a drone in May, where the drone came so close to the aircraft that it obstructed the pilot’s view through the windshield. The Airbus A320 had just departed from London’s Heathrow Airport and was flying at 9,000 feet when the incident occurred.
In a separate incident in January, a drone narrowly avoided colliding with a Boeing 737 airliner on its approach to Gatwick Airport, with investigators attributing the lack of impact to sheer luck. The official report mentioned that the drone passed within 10-20 meters on the right-hand side of the aircraft without any time for evasive maneuvers.