“The Civil Aviation Authority decided not to allow take-offs or landings, and flights were redirected, after drones were observed at Arlanda Airport,” police wrote in a statement about the incident in the early hours of September 9th.
Cecilia Bengtström from the aviation authority told the TT newswire that there were four of them in varying size.
Around five flights were redirected to airports such as Nyköping and Gothenburg on September 9th, with some redirected as far away as Copenhagen or Finland, according to Swedish media.
The drones were reported around 1am, with traffic resuming around 3.30am on Monday.
“The police are collecting information on what has been observed and have launched a preliminary investigation into airport sabotage and violation of the Protection Act,” police wrote on their website.
The Protection Act refers to skyddslagen, the law which designates certain key areas, like airports and defence-related buildings, as protected areas, prohibiting unauthorised people from entering, photographing or mapping the area, among other things.
Around 10pm on Sunday, police were also alerted to the presence of suspected drones in Uppsala, Upsala Nya Tidning reports. They were allegedly close to a protected area. The event has also been reported as a potential violation of the Protection Act.
“They were close to our operations, essentially police buildings,” Tobias Ahlén-Svalbro, from the police, told the newspaper.
Police have said that it is too early to say whether there’s a connection between the sightings in Uppsala and Arlanda.
Then, late on Monday evening, another drone was spotted flying above Arlanda. Traffic was briefly halted but could resume before midnight.
On Tuesday night, the Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that security guards at Arlanda had spotted a drone for the third night in a row. Police on Wednesday stressed that they have not yet been able to confirm any of the alleged sightings.
Hans Liwång, an expert at Sweden’s Defence University, told Aftonbladet that based on the nature of the incidents, it looked like the first one was coordinated and the second one may have been by a copycat.
On Saturday, a Russian drone crashed in Lithuania.
Flying a drone near an airport requires special permission, and airport sabotage can risk a jail sentence of up to four years, if the aim is to endanger the security or function of the airport.
If there is deemed to have been a risk to human life, then it is classified as gross airport sabotage, which can carry a life sentence.
No arrests had been made by the time of publication.
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According to website Cornucopia, nighttime NATO exercises are taking place around Arlanda and the Ärna military airfield outside Uppsala for most of the week. The four drones last night could perhaps just by chance have been operated by somebody who would like to disturb NATO exercises.
Even the Skydive Stockholm parachuting club knows about a NATO exercise around Arlanda and Ärna Uppsala this week (NATO-Övning påverkar hoppverksamheten – Skydive Stockholm). It’s amazing that not one single Swedish newspaper has picked it up after the drones were discovered. Even The Times (in London) has a headline this morning with “Suspicion falls on Moscow after drones force Sweden to shut airport” but still not a squeak from the Swedish press.
@Tony there is no such thing as “Swedish press”, there are just kids playing journalists.