Danish police have hinted Russia may have been behind a swarm of drones that shut down Copenhagen airport, disrupting around 100 flights and leaving 20,000 passengers stranded as authorities issue a chilling warning of sabotage.
Police inspector Jens Jespersen suggested that the incident had all the signs of a sophisticated operation.
He said: 'The number, size, flight patterns, time over the airport. All this together indicates that it is a capable actor. Which capable actor, I do not know.'
In further hints that they believe Vladimir Putin was behind the drones, authorities said that the perpetrator was seeking to demonstrate certain abilities.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, in a social media post, referred to 'Russia's violation' of NATO airspace in Copenhagen. However, he did not indicate the source of his claim.
Meanwhile, Danish intelligence has now said the country is facing a 'high threat of sabotage' after the incident.
'We are facing a high threat of sabotage in Denmark. Someone may not necessarily want to attack us, but rather stress us out and see how we react,' Flemming Drejer, Director of Operations at Denmark's intelligence service PET, told a press conference.
Sharing further details, Jespersen said that the drones had appeared from several different directions, turning their lights on and off before finally disappearing after several hours.
Police are examining multiple theories about where the drones came from, including the possibility that they were launched from ships. Denmark’s main airport sits close to a busy shipping lane used by vessels entering and leaving the Baltic Sea.
On Tuesday, Russia broke its silence to deny any involvement.
Flights at Copenhagen and Oslo were either diverted or grounded for hours on Monday evening after multiple large drones were seen above the runways.
Authorities in Denmark diverted 31 flights to other airports, causing ripple effects that delayed or cancelled around 100 flights and affected some 20,000 passengers, a spokesperson told reporters. The airport finally reopened in the early hours of Tuesday.
All traffic was halted after the unidentified drones were 'spotted nearby' at around 8.26pm local time.
Police officers seen at Copenhagen Airport after all flights were diverted due to drone sightings
Copenhagen police spokesperson Henrik Stormer revealed that the drones remained present in the area for several hours afterwards.
At least 35 flights were ordered to other sites, including Malmo and Gothenburg, Sweden, and Billund, Aalborg, and Aarhus, Denmark.
Later in the evening, Oslo Airport in Norway was also forced to close and divert its planes after drones were spotted in the vicinity.
Two people were also arrested in the Norwegian capital after drones were seen at a military site.
At a press conference in Copenhagen, Jakob Hansen, deputy police inspector at the Copenhagen Police, said they are working with the Danish Armed Forces on the incident, saying that 'measures will be taken'.
The police could not say where the drones came from, but said they disappeared on their own and have not been seen since.
He said the police 'do not know at this time' whether the drones were Russian.
Deputy Inspector Hansen confirmed that the police would work closely with the Norwegian police after a number of drones were spotted in Oslo.
He said he understood people's fears about the drones in Danish airspace.
He added: 'I can understand that the security situation, as it is, makes people think about many things. If people have become afraid, then I can understand that.
'The police cannot yet say anything about where the drones came from, nor can they say where they subsequently flew.'
However, Hansen said there were no indications that the drones had posed a danger to Danes.
Police said they were not concerned about the possibility of the drones attacking and said passengers who were in planes were not in danger.
They said they will host a further press conference at 7am local time.
During the closure, one plane was allowed to make an emergency landing at Copenhagen Airport as it did not have enough fuel to divert.
Earlier in the evening, duty officer Anette Ostenfeldt warned that the drones were still 'flying back and forth, coming and going', several hours after the closure.
Police said that between two and three 'large' drones had been sighted in the area
She could not say if the drones were military or civilian devices.
'But they are bigger than what you as a private individual can buy,' Ostenfeldt said.
An airport spokesperson told local news outlet BT that the drone sighting was 'unusual'.
She said: 'It's procedure that you can neither take off nor land, and you still can't. The police are investigating the matter, until they have more information, the airspace is closed.
'We hope that passengers can soon depart safely and land safely.'
They also reportedly called in extra staff for several positions.
Passenger Mikael Belstrup told the news channel he was on a flight from Amsterdam to Copenhagen, which was diverted to Billund.
He said: 'We were told that Copenhagen Airport was closed due to drones and that the staff didn't know anything. We are still in the plane and they are refuelling it so we have the opportunity to come back if or when the airport opens.'
Another passenger told local media that they boarded a plane to Paris for a school trip.
She said: 'The atmosphere is quite tense, and no one really knows what is going on.
'What makes it unsafe to sit here is that we can see that there are so many police surrounding us and so many blue lights.'
Many flights to and from Copenhagen have been severely delayed or cancelled
Another eyewitness said they saw blue flashes from the runways, three police cars and around eight officers.
One flyer who had been travelling from Krakow questioned whether there was a possibility the drone was meant to be in Polish airspace.
'It was really uncomfortable. Really uncomfortable. When you think about everything that's happened in the last few weeks,' he told BT.
Later, at around 9:00pm local time, a similar alert occurred in Oslo, Norway, after drones were spotted over the Akershus Fortress, a military site.
Norwegian police detained two foreign nationals who were operating a drone over Akershus Fortress, which houses the headquarters of the Norwegian Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence, according to the Norwegian state broadcaster NRK.
Drones were then spotted near Oslo airport, forcing it to close and divert all of its flights to other destinations.
Norwegian police said they had not been able to locate the drone or its owner.
They added that there is no basis to say that it is related to drones at Copenhagen Airport.
Copenhagen Airport was previously closed in January for almost two hours following a drone sighting.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15124661/Drone-panic-hits-Scandinavian-airports-Police-hint-Putin-chaos-capable-operator-grounded-flights-hitting-20-000-passengers.html
Drone sightings forced the authorities in Denmark and Norway to close the main airports in Copenhagen and Oslo for several hours overnight, causing widespread flight disruptions into Tuesday.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark said in a statement that it was the “most serious attack so far” on the country’s critical infrastructure.
Ms. Frederiksen noted that the Copenhagen police had said the episode involved a “capable actor,” and said it was “clear that this ties into the developments we have observed recently with other drone attacks, violations of airspace, and cyberattacks on European airports.”
In Denmark, the first drone sightings were reported at Copenhagen Airport on Monday night. Several large drones remained in the air for four hours, Jens Jespersen, chief superintendent of the Danish police, said. The authorities said that they had suspended all takeoffs and landings because of the presence of the drones.
A few hours later, Oslo Airport was closed because of similar sightings, forcing flights to be diverted to other airports in Norway.
Last week, Denmark announced that it would bolster its military, including by acquiring long-range weapons, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “There is no doubt that Russia will be a threat to Denmark and Europe for many years to come,” Ms. Frederiksen said at the time.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/world/europe/copenhagen-oslo-airport-closed-drone.html
Officials chose not to shoot down the drones because the risk was too great with the airport being full of passengers, planes on the runways and the nearby fuel depots
Europe's "critical infrastructure is at risk,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X. "It is clear we are witnessing a pattern of persistent contestation at our borders," she added.
Denmark’s National Police Commissioner Thorkild Fogde told CNN Tuesday that these were not amateur or hobby drones, but rather large drones that likely had a capable operator.
“This was not an accident of some kind,” Fogde said. “The way they went into the airspace, the number of drones, the time that they were in the airspace – altogether leads us to the conclusion that it must be some kind of more capable operator behind the drones.”
The drones came from several different directions, turning their lights on and off, before eventually disappearing after several hours, Danish police Chief Superintendent Jens Jespersen told reporters on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
“It’s an actor who has the capabilities, the will and the tools to show off in this way,” Jespersen said.
We see a clear pattern: Russia is testing the European borders, also probing our resolve and undermining our security throughout,” Anitta Hipper, European Commission spokesperson, said Tuesday.
According to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, at least “three big drones” were involved in the Copenhagen incident.
They are bigger than what a private individual can buy.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said that Russia has violated Norwegian airspace three times this year.
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