Denmark's Aalborg Airport closed because of drones two days after Copenhagen incursion

[ad_1] COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Denmark’s Aalborg Airport, used for industrial and army flights, was closed because of drones in its airspace, police mentioned early on Thursday, two days after the country’s main Copenhagen airport was shut over drone sightings that raised European safety considerations.

Danish nationwide police mentioned the drones followed a similar pattern to those that had halted flights at Copenhagen Airport for 4 hours a number of days earlier.

Denmark mentioned on Tuesday the incident at Copenhagen airport was essentially the most critical assault but on its important infrastructure and linked it to a series of suspected Russian drone incursions and different disruptions throughout Europe.

The closure of Aalborg airport additionally affected Denmark’s armed forces as a result of it's used as a army base, police added. The Danish armed forces mentioned they had been aiding native and nationwide police with the investigation, however declined to remark additional.

Authorities in Norway additionally shut the airspace at Oslo airport for 3 hours on Monday night after a drone was seen.

European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned on Tuesday that the drones that halted flights at Copenhagen airport had been a part of a “sample of persistent contestation at our borders.”

Suspicions of Russian involvemen t within the Copenhagen airport incident had been ungrounded, Russia’s ambassador to Denmark mentioned on Tuesday.

Norwegian and Danish authorities are in shut contact over the Copenhagen and Oslo incidents on Monday however their investigation has not but established a connection, Norway’s overseas minister mentioned on Wednesday.

A couple of drone Northern Jutland police instructed reporters that “multiple drone” had been sighted close to Aalborg airport and so they had been flying with lights on.

The drones had been first sighted at about 9:44 p.m. (2:44 p.m ET) on Wednesday, in line with police, and remained within the airspace on the time of the press briefing at 12:05 a.m. on Thursday.

Eurocontrol, which oversees European air site visitors management, mentioned arrivals and departures at Aalborg airport can be at a “zero price” till 9 p.m. ET Thursday because of drone exercise within the neighborhood.

Northern Jutland police mentioned they might not specify the kind of drones or whether or not they had been the identical as those flying over Copenhagen airport on Monday.

“It's too early to say what the objective of the drones is and who's the actor behind,” a police official mentioned, including that they might take down the drones if doable.

Southern Jutland police later mentioned in a put up on X that drones had additionally been noticed close to the airports within the Danish cities of Esberg, Sonderborg and Skrydstrup.

Fighter Wing Skrydstrup in Southern Jutland is the bottom for Denmark’s F-16 and F-35 fighter jets.

Nationwide police commissioner Thorkild Fogde mentioned many individuals across the nation had reported drone sightings to the police since Monday.

“After all many of those reviews don't cowl actions which might be of curiosity to the police or the army, however a few of them do, and I feel the one in Aalborg does,” he mentioned.

Police mentioned they had been investigating additional on web site and cooperating with nationwide intelligence service and the armed forces, in addition to authorities in different nations.