By Louise Rasmussen
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Denmark’s Aalborg airport is currently closed due to drones in its airspace, local police said early on Thursday, two days after the country’s main Copenhagen airport was shut over drone sightings that rattled European aviation.
Danish national police said the drones followed a similar pattern to the ones that had halted flights at Copenhagen airport for four hours a few days earlier. The country’s armed forces were also affected, as Aalborg airport is used as a military base, they added.
Denmark said on Tuesday the incident at Copenhagen airport was the most serious attack yet on its critical infrastructure and linked it to a series of suspected Russian drone incursions and other disruptions across Europe.
Authorities in Norway also shut the airspace at Oslo airport for three hours on Monday evening after a drone was seen.
Northern Jutland police told reporters that “more than one drone” had been sighted near Aalborg airport and they were flying with lights on.
The drones were first sighted at about 9:44 p.m. (1944 GMT) on Wednesday, according to police, and remained in the airspace at the time of the press briefing at 12:05 a.m. on Thursday.
Northern Jutland police said they could not specify the type of drones or whether they were the same as the ones flying over Copenhagen airport on Monday.
“It is too early to say what the goal of the drones is and who is the actor behind,” a police official said.
Norwegian and Danish authorities are in close contact over the Copenhagen and Oslo incidents on Monday but their investigation has not yet established a connection, Norway’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Eurocontrol, which oversees European air traffic control, said arrivals and departures at Aalborg airport would be at a “zero rate” until 0400 GMT on Thursday due to drone activity in the vicinity.
Police said they were investigating further on site and there was no danger to passengers at the airport or residents in the area.
They added that three flights had been diverted to other airports.
(Reporting by Louise Rasmussen in Copenhagen; additional reporting by Surbhi Misra and Ananya Palyekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Jamie Freed)
