Drones close a Denmark airport for second time in a week

By Michael Rios, CNN

(CNN) — The airspace over Aalborg Airport in Denmark has been closed after drones were spotted flying nearby, airport CEO Niels Hemmingsen told CNN on Wednesday, marking the second time this week that an airport in the country has been forced to close due to drone sightings.

Police have not yet determined who is behind the latest incident but are investigating several theories, Denmark’s National Police Commissioner Thorkild Fogde told CNN.

“Once again, we have verified these objects violating the airspace over the airport as drones,” he said, noting that additional drone sightings were reported in at least three other airports Wednesday night into Thursday morning, but so far only the drones in Aalborg have been verified.

Police have not ruled out taking out the drones, Fogde added, but stressed that such a scenario would be complicated.

“You need to have the means to take down the drones,” he said. “You need to be able to get close enough to the flying drones, and you also have to be able to do it without jeopardizing flight safety around the airport … and you have to take public security into consideration.”

Aalborg is also an active air base though it’s unclear what kind of military equipment is currently present there.

At least three inbound flights have been redirected to other airports, while two outbound flights and one inbound have been canceled, according to FlightRadar24.

On Monday, sightings of two or three large drones near Copenhagen airport halted all take-offs and landings for nearly four hours.

It’s unclear if the drones that flew near Aalborg Airport are the same as the ones in Copenhagen but Fogde said that the pattern was similar: “unauthorized drones over-flying the airport area, breaking airport security, violating the airspace.”

Fogde told CNN Tuesday that the drones that flew over Copenhagen were not amateur or hobby drones, but rather large drones that likely had a capable operator. Police are still investigating that incident, he said.

In Norway, the airspace over Oslo Airport was closed for around three hours Tuesday morning due to a separate drone sighting. Fogde said there was no indication the Copenhagen incident was linked to the drone sighting in Oslo.

Europe has been on alert since Russian drones violated both Polish and Romanian airspace earlier this month – prompting NATO allies to pledge to beef up defenses on the bloc’s eastern flank.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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