OSLO (Kashmir English): Airports in Copenhagen and Oslo reopened on Tuesday, police said, hours after unidentified drones were seen in their airspace that caused flight diversions and other travel disruption.
Police, in the Danish capital Copenhagen, said several large drones were seen over the airport for several hours late Monday but eventually they flew away on their own.
“The drones have disappeared and the airport is open again,” Deputy Police Inspector Jakob Hansen told media. “We didn’t take the drones down,” he added.
Hansen said police were cooperating with the Danish military and intelligence service to determine where the drones had come from.
Drone sightings also caused closure of Norwegian airport
He said police were also working with Oslo police after drone sightings in the Norwegian capital also caused the airport to close for several hours.
“We had two different drone sightings,” Oslo airport spokeswoman Monica Fasting told an international news agency.
“We reopened the airport around 3:15 am (6:15 am PKT),” she said.
Meanwhile, flights were diverted to nearby airports, and officials at both airports said they expected some delays and disruptions to continue on Tuesday.
The incidents followed the governments of Poland, Estonia and Romania accusing Russia of violating their airspace this month. Moscow has, however, rejected the allegations.
Deputy police inspector, Hansen, was not sure at that stage whether the drones above Copenhagen airport could have come from Russia.
Danish police are of the view that drones, that disrupted the country’s main airport, appeared to have been flown by “a capable operator” seeking to demonstrate certain abilities, adding that no suspects had been identified.
“We have concluded that this was what we would call a capable operator,” Danish police Chief Superintendent Jens Jespersen told reporters on Tuesday, referring to the drones observed in Copenhagen.
“It’s an actor who has the capabilities, the will and the tools to show off in this way,” Jespersen said, adding that it was too early to say if the incidents in Denmark and Norway were linked.
