Traffic to resume at Sweden’s second-biggest airport after drone scare

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By Johan Ahlander

GOTHENBURG, Sweden (Reuters) -A drone incident that prompted a sabotage investigation and halted traffic at Sweden’s second-largest airport ended on Thursday night with flights preparing to resume.

Drones have caused major disruption across Europe in recent months, forcing temporary airport closures in several countries. Some officials have blamed the incidents on hybrid warfare by Russia. Moscow has denied any connection with the incidents.

One or more drones were observed at the Gothenburg-Landvetter Airport on Sweden’s west coast around 1641 GMT, authorities said earlier on Thursday, forcing more than a dozen flights to be rerouted or canceled.

“Police have now informed us that the incident is over and we therefore plan to start traffic back up again,” state-owned airport operator Swedavia told Reuters in a text message.

“We have launched an investigation into suspected aviation sabotage,” the police spokesperson said.

On Tuesday, drone sightings forced closures of airports and a military air base in Belgium in what the country’s defence minister called a coordinated attack.

On Thursday, police in Sweden’s neighbour Norway said they had closed a probe into suspected sightings that caused a shutdown of Oslo’s airport in September, citing insufficient evidence that drones had been present.

In neighbouring Denmark, several airports, including Copenhagen, also closed temporarily in September due to reported drone sightings.

(Reporting by Johan Ahlander in Gothenburg and Louise Breusch Rasmussen in Copenhagen; editing by Anna Ringstrom, Leslie Adler and Lisa Shumaker)