Drones Ground Aalborg Airport as Denmark confronts second drone disruption in three days

Aalborg Airport in Denmark halted all inbound and outbound flights on Wednesday night after drones were observed in its airspace. Airport officials said all arriving and departing aircraft were prevented from using the runways while authorities assessed the situation, and inbound flights were diverted to other airports.

Nordjyllands Police said drones were observed near the airport and that the airspace was closed, with officers on the scene as investigators proceeded. The police did not specify how many drones were sighted. Four flights — including two SAS planes, one Norwegian and one KLM flight — were affected.

The broader episode this week has seen Danish authorities hint at possible links to a wider drone campaign that disrupted Copenhagen airport, grounding or diverting roughly 100 flights and affecting about 20,000 passengers. Police investigators assessed the Copenhagen episode as bearing the hallmarks of a capable operation, though no group had been identified yet. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen described the disruption as the most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date, with officials not ruling out Russian involvement. Authorities also noted that the perpetrator appeared to seek to demonstrate certain abilities, complicating attribution.

Drones in Aalborg appeared from several directions and reportedly had their lights on and off before disappearing after several hours. Investigators are examining multiple theories about origin, including the possibility that drones were launched from ships. Denmark’s main airport sits near a busy Baltic Sea shipping lane, a factor that has prompted authorities to consider maritime launch possibilities as part of their inquiry.

Danish intelligence services have warned of a high threat of sabotage, with officials saying that some actors may attempt to stress national resilience rather than carry out a direct strike. Flemming Drejer, Director of Operations at Denmark’s intelligence service PET, stressed that the high threat level reflects a broad range of potential threats beyond a single act of aggression.

Russia denied involvement in the Copenhagen disruption on Tuesday, as Western analysts debated who might be responsible for the wave of drone activity that has unsettled northern Europe. Earlier in the week, aircraft at Copenhagen were diverted or grounded, with Oslo’s airport also closing briefly as drones were spotted nearby. Airports in Malmo and Gothenburg, Sweden, as well as Billund, Aalborg, and Aarhus in Denmark, were among those affected as authorities redirected flights. The scale of disruption underscored the vulnerability of major air hubs to low‑flying drones and the challenges of rapid attribution in such incidents.

As Aalborg continues to assess the situation, authorities indicated that further updates would follow. The incident at Aalborg, coming after the Copenhagen disruption, emphasizes a period of heightened caution for Denmark’s aviation first responders and the broader security community across Europe.