Emergency action had to be taken at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport today where a runway was closed due to concern over what the pilot of a Transavia plane spotted
A runway at a major European airport had to be closed due to what police have called a “quite unique” case.
The Poderbaan runway at Schiphol Airport, in Amsterdam, had to be shut for 45 minutes at around 12.10pm due to a drone which was flying at an altitude of around 150m. A YouTube livestream by plane enthusiasts heard a pilot of a Transavia plane saying that the drone was roughly 50m from his plane.
It sparked a police operation including a helicopter but neither the drone or the operator could be located. A spokesperson for the military police, the Royal Marechaussee, said it was “quite unique” and the drone operator was probably flying it as a hobby.
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It is believed it was quite a small drone and police said air traffic was not put in danger. The incident did lead to planes being diverted to another runway.
“For safety reasons, air traffic was diverted from the Polderbaan to the Zwanenburgbaan at that time,” a spokesperson for the Royal Marechaussee told RTL Nieuws.
While this case appears to have been put down to someone using a drone as a hobby, there have been more serious incidents in other European countries over recent days which appear to be more sinister.
The Danish Defence Ministry said Saturday that “drones have been observed at several of Danish defence facilities.” The new drone sightings overnight Friday into Saturday come after several drone sightings in the Nordic country earlier this week, with some of them temporarily shutting down Danish airports.
Several local media outlets reported one or more drones were seen near or above the Karup Air Base, which is Denmark’s biggest military base. The defence ministry refused to confirm the sighting at Karup or elsewhere and said that “for reasons of operational security and the ongoing investigation, the Defence Command Denmark does not wish to elaborate further on drone sightings.”
The ministry clarified reports of additional drone activity at Skrydstrup Air Base and the Jutland Dragoon Regiment referred to sightings that didn’t occur overnight from Friday to Saturday.
Tensions have been running high in Denmark over the drone activity, along with hundreds of possible sightings reported by concerned citizens that have not been confirmed. Nonetheless, the public has been asked to report all suspicious activity to police.
On Saturday, DR and several other local media reported that in Karup, there were drones in the air both inside and outside the fence of the air base at around 8pm on Friday, quoting Simon Skelkjær, the duty manager at the Central and West Jutland Police.
DR said that for a period of time, the airspace was closed to civil air traffic, but that didn’t have much practical significance as there is currently no civil aviation in Karup.
The repeated unexplained drone activity, including at four Danish airports overnight Wednesday into Thursday and a similar incident at Copenhagen Airport, has raised concerns about security in northern Europe amid growing Russian aggression.
