On 22 Monday and 23 Tuesday September, two of Scandinavia’s busiest airports had to close down for hours on end, causing major travel disruptions. Two separate events involving drones were to blame for the incidents.
The travel trouble started at Denmark’s biggest airport on the evening of Monday, 22 September 2025. The airspace over Denmark’s Copenhagen Airport had to be closed down for almost four hours following the sighting of two to three large and unidentified drones. The objects came from different directions and continuously turned their lights on and off, according to the Danish police Chief Superintendent Jens Jespersen.
The airspace closed around 8:00 pm on Monday and was only able to reopen at 12:20 am. During that time, some 35 flights were diverted towards other airports, causing chaos amongst travellers. Even after the airport was able to reopen its doors, some delays and disruptions continued well into Tuesday, 23 September.
‼️🇩🇰 – Footage of drones that closed Copenhagen Airport in Denmark for hours at night.
— WorldConflictOSINT (@WorldConOSINT) September 23, 2025
Denmark's PM on the drones over Copenhagen airport :
"What we saw last night is the most serious assault on Danish critical infrastructure to date" https://t.co/6HMyzRuEyB pic.twitter.com/2NDniQKtA8
At the moment, it remains unclear who was behind the drone invasion and how they reached the airport – by land or by boat. However, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has already called the incident “the most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date”, and officials are not ruling out the possibility of a Russian hybrid attack.
“This was not an accident of some kind. 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”, Denmark’s National Police Commissioner Thorkild Fogde told CNN.
2/2 “At the moment, we are witnessing a disturbing shift. Russian airspace violations. Unwanted drone activity in several European countries. Last night was an unmistakable reminder of the time we live in. That we need to protect our peace and security.”
— Statsministeriet (@Statsmin) September 23, 2025
A (separate) incident in Oslo
That same night of 23 September, a separate drone incident caused disruption at Oslo Airport in Norway. Starting from midnight until 3:22 am local time, incoming flights were redirected to one single runway according to Norwegian broadcaster NRK. Gisle Sveen, operations manager for the Norwegian East Police District, said that two members of the airport staff had seen lights in the sky, appearing to be drones. Only hours earlier, police had arrested two people in Oslo who were flying drones over a restricted area, more specifically, the Akershus Fortress – a castle doubling as a government event space.
Summary of last nights drone chaos in Scandinavia.
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) September 23, 2025
Copenhagen Airport
51 flights diverted
109 flights cancelled
Oslo Airport
11 flights diverted
19 flights cancelled pic.twitter.com/SaOOiUDQhn
While the Danish police Chief Superintendent Jens Jespersen stated that the Copenhagen and Oslo airport incidents do not seem to be linked directly, authorities are still looking at possible ties between the two. As Russia is currently increasing its use of drones in its war on Ukraine, European nations are on high alert. NATO members Romania and Poland have already experienced incursions by Russian drones.
