Aviation safety tested by drones

The constabulary and members of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) inspect an country astatine DSB connected Kystvejen adjacent Copenhagen Airport successful Copenhagen, Denmark, connected 23 September 2025. [Steven Knap/EPA]

Chaotic scenes astatine Copenhagen’s airdrome this week, triggered by a coordinated swarm of drones, person raised the alarm crossed Europe, including Greece, implicit aviation information and the lack of unified legislation. The attacks besides disrupted operations successful Oslo.

Though drone threats are not caller – 1 of the archetypal widely reported incidents came successful 2016 when a British Airways aviator said his level was struck adjacent Heathrow – officials accidental the frequence and sophistication of such incidents person escalated.

“With swarms of drones appearing virtually retired of nowhere, extortion of craft whitethorn mean suspending oregon diverting flights,” said Konstantinos Diamantakos, caput of General Aviation and Drones astatine Greece’s Civil Aviation Authority.

Anti-drone systems are divided into detection and neutralization technologies, often utilizing signal-jamming methods tied to nationalist security.

In Copenhagen, nary drones were reported downed, raising questions astir whether defenses failed oregon authorities deliberately avoided shooting them down.

Currently, the European Union issues lone guidelines. Because drone defence falls under nationalist security, each state decides its policies.

Experts suggest a communal ineligible model for detection systems could amended coordination.

In Greece, astir civilian airports – galore with subject use – already run perimeter systems for identifying and tracking drones. Major airports besides use neutralization tools susceptible of seizing power from operators. Smaller airports mostly trust lone connected monitoring, suspending flights if drones appear.

Greek instrumentality besides designates no-fly zones astir airports. Drone flights necessitate special support by the Civil Aviation Authority, which reviews permits earlier forwarding them to the Civil Aviation Service. Authorities accidental much than 20,000 drone flights person been authorized adjacent airports successful caller years without incident.