A total of four drones were flying over Stockholm Airport’s airspace. An act of sabotage is suspected.
Traffic at Stockholm Arlanda International Airport in Sweden was disrupted for nearly two hours overnight Sunday to Monday because four drones were flying into its airspace, police said Monday, suspecting an act of sabotage.
Between 01:00 and 02:00 in the morning, the police reported to the airport air traffic controllers the existence of these dronesthe Civil Aviation Authority (Luftfartsverket) said.
Five planes affected
“We then considered that we could not guarantee the safety of aviation and we decided to restrict the airspace,” said Daniel Ackermann, press officer of Luftfartsverket.
Landings and takeoffs were interrupted between 02:00 and 03:40 at Arlanda Airport. Five aircraft were affected by the disruption, said Swedavia, the operator of Sweden’s airports.
Three of them were delayed and two landed at two other airports, one operated by Norwegian in Helsinki, Finland, and the other operated by SAS in Landvetter, Gothenburg. An investigation into “airport sabotage” has been opened by the police.
“We suspect that this was a deliberate act, but I cannot say what the intended purpose was. Due to the secrecy of the investigation, we cannot specify what type of drone it was,” police spokesman Daniel Wikdahl told several Swedish media outlets.
