20 drones were seen over Køge (Denmark)

[Calter]

So, 20 "drones" were apparently seen flying near Køge.

The sightings are being discussed in these two reddit threads


Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1htbd96/on_saturday_night_20_drones_were_seen_over_k%C3%B8ge/



Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1htgb4y/large_drones_uaps_over_denmark/


Most articles out there just reference this statement by the police.

https://politi.dk/midt-og-vestsjael...tiet-undersoeger-droner-over-koege/2025/01/04

Police investigate drones over Køge

Late Friday evening, several drones were observed flying around in the air over Køge.

At 10.30 p.m. on Friday evening, the Central and West Zealand Police received a report that several drones had been seen in the air over Køge.

"The reviewer believed to have seen up to 20 larger drones flying around the area around Køge Marina. We therefore sent a patrol to the area, and they managed to see four of the drones themselves," says Deputy Police Inspector Michael Sehedsted.

The last drones were seen around 0116 a.m., when they disappeared over the sea at high speed.

"At present, we have no knowledge of where the drones came from or what they have been doing. We have been in contact with several other authorities in the case, but at the moment we have no knowledge of why the drones were over Køge. We are now trying to investigate this," says Michael Sehested.

If anyone has knowledge of who owns the drones, the Central and West Zealand Police would like to hear about it on 114.

The statement was made around 9AM, so I'm not sure how much investigation actually went into the sightings before a statement was released. I would assume it was mostly handled by a small team of people from an already small night shift crew at most.

But there's also this article that I found which has an interesting conflicting quote.

https://www.berlingske.dk/indland/mystiske-droner-over-havnen-i-koege-vi-har-anmodet-om-en-skaerpet

The Danish Police Intelligence Service (PET) has been informed about the drone activity, and the reports "are being handled and investigated by the relevant police district."

"PET is in continuous contact with the circles about the incidents – and that is also the case in this case," PET writes to Ritzau.


In addition to PET, the police district has reached out to the Armed Forces.

But since the drones have been spotted over land, the Armed Forces consider it a police matter, and the Armed Forces do not have an investigative trail underway, an officer on duty from the Defense Operations Center told Ritzau.

(bolden by me)

I find it confusing that the drones were apparently spotted over land, but they also flew away over the sea at high speeds.

To me at least, the sightings on the video just look like potential planes, with the exception being maybe the one that looks very bright 12 seconds in (though it could just be a plane looking straight at the camera and then turning right).

Looking at flight radar, I count 21 planes flying from 22:30 local time to 23:30 local time, because the port directly overlooks the landing area for Køgenhavn

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?replay=2025-01-03-22:31&lat=55.476&lon=12.628&zoom=9.8

I'm more curious on the 01:16 sighting, since I don't see any plane flying anywhere near Køge at that time, with a plane landing at 00:50 and then no planes until past 2AM (none of which are landing)

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?replay=2025-01-03-23:49&lat=55.496&lon=13.029&zoom=9.0

But it wouldn't surprise me if 1:16 is just the time they stopped looking.

There's very little info to go around, but I think the story will grow and it's best to get ahead of it before things start to get lost as the story progresses.

 

[flarkey]

Looking at flight radar, I count 21 planes flying from 22:30 local time to 23:30 local time, because the port directly overlooks the landing area for Køgenhavn

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?replay=2025-01-03-22:31&lat=55.476&lon=12.628&zoom=9.8

I'm more curious on the 01:16 sighting, since I don't see any plane flying anywhere near Køge at that time, with a plane landing at 00:50 and then no planes until past 2AM (none of which are landing)

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?replay=2025-01-03-23:49&lat=55.496&lon=13.029&zoom=9.0

Not much to add other than your observations on flights landing at Copenhagen seems to be reflected in the Flight Aware logs for the airport. The last plane landed at 00.52am local and the next arrival was at 0631am local.

https://uk.flightaware.com/live/airport/EKCH/arrivals?;offset=200;order=actualarrivaltime;sort=DESC

(One note re 'arrival' - I think that is the time the plane arrived at the gate, not when it actually landed.)

 

[dr.penguin]

It wouldn't surprise me if the 01:16 sighting seen was just the time that police or anyone else in the relevant area in Køgenhavn stopped their investigation.

 

[Minus0]

I find it confusing that the drones were apparently spotted over land, but they also flew away over the sea at high speeds.

At this point, I suspect that drone sightings at night over a city are becoming the modern equivalent of Nicky Nicky Nine Doors. In this specific case, if I were a Danish kid with some friends, I would probably launch the drones further down the beach, take off over the ocean, and then bring them back in a more rural area to avoid getting caught. For example, this would be a prime location and is quite close to the marina
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Q3RhMAAkiWk6mZYS8?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy

I suspect the sightings mostly involve misperceived aircraft, and if drones were actually involved, it was probably just a few operated by kids. A quick search for "drone pranks" on YouTube reveals countless videos of people using drones to mess with others. Given the current drone craze, I'm sure there are plenty of kids out there doing exactly the same thing.

 

[Mick West]

We have to be careful with dates and times here. The Reddit thread from 10 hours ago says "Saturday night", which would be in the future. The Police report says

"10.30 p.m. on Friday evening"

Which makes more sense, Friday Night and Saturday Morning.
Denmark is UTC+1 so you have to subtract 1 to get UTC, so 10:30pm CET is 9:30PM, 21:30 UTC, Friday Jan 3rd

I'm more curious on the 01:16 sighting, since I don't see any plane flying anywhere near Køge at that time, with a plane landing at 00:50 and then no planes until past 2AM (none of which are landing)

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?replay=2025-01-03-23:49&lat=55.496&lon=13.029&zoom=9.0

If you widen the area a bit there are planes that would be visible

That region is fairly low and flat, so there are few obstructions to seeing distant planes, low on the horizon

9H-WDT would likely be visible 50NM to the south at 01:16
https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?cu...azonaws.com/1/Denmark 1:16/20250104_224931.js

But to identify individual lights, we need the exact time, location, and the direction they are looking.

 

[JMartJr]

At this point, I suspect that drone sightings at night over a city are becoming the modern equivalent of Nicky Nicky Nine Doors.

Since I looked it up out of curiosity, I'll share:

the practice of knocking on a door or ringing a doorbell and running away before it is answered.

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/nicky-tam

Here, it would be called "Ding Dong Ditch," apparently also known as "Knock Knock Ginger," "Chappy" or "Knock Door Run."

 

[Ann K]

Since I looked it up out of curiosity, I'll share:

the practice of knocking on a door or ringing a doorbell and running away before it is answered.

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/nicky-tam

Here, it would be called "Ding Dong Ditch," apparently also known as "Knock Knock Ginger," "Chappy" or "Knock Door Run."

I never knew a name for it. But the last time I saw it, it was practiced by adults! I had a night class that met on Halloween one year, leaving my husband alone with a baby and a toddler, and as I drove away I could see several neighbors lurking in the shrubbery. They knew it was my husband's birthday, so had some fun with him by knocking on the front door, then rushing around to knock on the side door. After a few iterations he managed to catch them in the act.

 

[ThomasH]

Hi I've spent a lot of time on this "case", it looks like the same as New Jersey, there might have been some drones but they filmed a plane
I've spent hours trying to locate those houses and the three stars but gave up.
Anyway I think it's this plane.

 

[Calter]

Just a little update to this. Apparently, there's been more "drones" sighted this Sunday, at around 4:25PM (this time we don't know when they saw the last or stopped looking)

https://www.berlingske.dk/indland/politi-maerkelig-drone-observeret-ved-koege-bugt?referrer=RSS

On Sunday, citizens have again observed drones at the port of Køge.

This is according to duty commander at the Central and West Zealand Police, Lars Galasz.


It was reported around 4.25 p.m. and subsequently the police have been present at the harbor.

Here, the patrol itself saw one large drone in the air, which subsequently disappeared over the sea.

"We have written a report on this because it seemed strange," says Lars Galasz.

What was it that seemed strange?


"That's just the angle it came from, and because the patrol itself saw it disappear over Køge Bay."

According to the watch commander, the police would have liked to have sent their own drone after the foreign drone, but did not get there before it had disappeared again.

He calls the drone "relatively large", but emphasizes that you are not up to the order of magnitude with, for example, a bed.

Where the drone flew to, who owned it, or what its errand was, the police do not yet know.



Towards the evening of Sunday, there have been what the watch commander describes as "an astonishing number of reports" about drones flying from the same direction, but many of these may have a quite common cause, explains Lars Galasz.

"It actually fits with the approach route to Kastrup. It has been changed a bit tonight, so much of it can probably be explained as planes seen from a distance."

If citizens should have more knowledge about the drones, the watch commander encourages them to get in touch.

This is not the first time that drones have been seen in the area. The first reports came on January 3, and the Danish Police Intelligence Service (PET) was informed of the incidents at that time.


"PET is aware of reports of drone activity in Denmark. The reports are handled and investigated by the relevant police district, and PET is in continuous contact with the circles about the incidents - and this is also the case in this case," PET wrote in a written statement.

Both Friday and Saturday, according to Ekstra Bladet, drones have also been observed at the port.

Bolden by me

So, it's somewhat interesting that "large drone" in this case is still less in order of magnitude than the size of a bed. But also, they recognize that many of the sightings (I reckon it's all of them tbh)

Checking again ADS-B Exchange, there are multiple planes landing around that time, in fact, there's always at least 2 planes flying low over the bay all the way until 4PM UTC (5PM local time) and there's more planes landing after (just less frequently)

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?replay=2025-01-12-15:25&lat=55.484&lon=12.345&zoom=10.0

And we can see that it would be shortly after sunset, so it's already dark and planes would be turning their lights on.

 

[Ann K]

So, it's somewhat interesting that "large drone" in this case is still less in order of magnitude than the size of a bed. But also, they recognize that many of the sightings (I reckon it's all of them tbh)

Checking again ADS-B Exchange, there are multiple planes landing around that time, in fact, there's always at least 2 planes flying low over the bay all the way until 4PM UTC (5PM local time) and there's more planes landing after (just less frequently)

If they recognize that some of these might be planes, they should be able to figure out that there's a significant problem with judging their size by eye.

 

[John J.]

From the quote in post #9,

He calls the drone "relatively large", but emphasizes that you are not up to the order of magnitude with, for example, a bed.

Taken literally, that might mean something a tenth of the size of a bed (or even down to 1% the size, if the sighted object was at the lower end of the order of magnitude that precedes the order of magnitude of a bed, with the bed at the upper end of its order).
(I think ).

It must be unlikely this is what the watch commander Lars Galasz meant to convey, but (even allowing for what we know about the difficulties involved in estimating the size of unfamiliar objects in the sky) if he's going to give an estimate of size, a comparison with a familiar object of similar size, or even approximate dimensions, would be more useful than

...not up to the order of magnitude with...

 

[jarlrmai]

From the quote in post #9,

He calls the drone "relatively large", but emphasizes that you are not up to the order of magnitude with, for example, a bed.

Taken literally, that might mean something a tenth of the size of a bed (or even down to 1% the size, if the sighted object was at the lower end of the order of magnitude that precedes the order of magnitude of a bed, with the bed at the upper end of its order).
(I think ).

It must be unlikely this is what the watch commander Lars Galasz meant to convey, but (even allowing for what we know about the difficulties involved in estimating the size of unfamiliar objects in the sky) if he's going to give an estimate of size, a comparison with a familiar object of similar size, or even approximate dimensions, would be more useful than

...not up to the order of magnitude with...

Could easily be a translation error.

 

[ThomasH]

Just a little update to this. Apparently, there's been more "drones" sighted this Sunday, at around 4:25PM (this time we don't know when they saw the last or stopped looking)

https://www.berlingske.dk/indland/politi-maerkelig-drone-observeret-ved-koege-bugt?referrer=RSS

On Sunday, citizens have again observed drones at the port of Køge.

This is according to duty commander at the Central and West Zealand Police, Lars Galasz.


It was reported around 4.25 p.m. and subsequently the police have been present at the harbor.

Here, the patrol itself saw one large drone in the air, which subsequently disappeared over the sea.

"We have written a report on this because it seemed strange," says Lars Galasz.

What was it that seemed strange?


"That's just the angle it came from, and because the patrol itself saw it disappear over Køge Bay."

According to the watch commander, the police would have liked to have sent their own drone after the foreign drone, but did not get there before it had disappeared again.

He calls the drone "relatively large", but emphasizes that you are not up to the order of magnitude with, for example, a bed.

Where the drone flew to, who owned it, or what its errand was, the police do not yet know.



Towards the evening of Sunday, there have been what the watch commander describes as "an astonishing number of reports" about drones flying from the same direction, but many of these may have a quite common cause, explains Lars Galasz.

"It actually fits with the approach route to Kastrup. It has been changed a bit tonight, so much of it can probably be explained as planes seen from a distance."

If citizens should have more knowledge about the drones, the watch commander encourages them to get in touch.

This is not the first time that drones have been seen in the area. The first reports came on January 3, and the Danish Police Intelligence Service (PET) was informed of the incidents at that time.


"PET is aware of reports of drone activity in Denmark. The reports are handled and investigated by the relevant police district, and PET is in continuous contact with the circles about the incidents - and this is also the case in this case," PET wrote in a written statement.

Both Friday and Saturday, according to Ekstra Bladet, drones have also been observed at the port.

Bolden by me

So, it's somewhat interesting that "large drone" in this case is still less in order of magnitude than the size of a bed. But also, they recognize that many of the sightings (I reckon it's all of them tbh)

Checking again ADS-B Exchange, there are multiple planes landing around that time, in fact, there's always at least 2 planes flying low over the bay all the way until 4PM UTC (5PM local time) and there's more planes landing after (just less frequently)

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?replay=2025-01-12-15:25&lat=55.484&lon=12.345&zoom=10.0

.....

The bed sized drone was a Boeing 777 - pretty big bed!


Source: https://youtu.be/H06ZzruUXsw

 

[John J.]

Just raising a possible contributing factor to drone sightings off Denmark,
although it's some 11 or 12 days too late to be an explanation for the sightings in the original post,
NATO is conducting Exercise Baltic Sentry (since 14 Jan 2025?) in response to recent mysterious (translation: Definitely Russian) damage to undersea cables in the Baltic Sea.

"Baltic Sentry" will involve a range of assets, including frigates and maritime patrol aircraft. The Secretary General also announced the deployment of new technologies, including a small fleet of naval drones, and highlighted that NATO will work with Allies to integrate national surveillance assets – all to improve the ability to protect critical undersea infrastructure and respond if required.

(My emphasis),
"NATO launches 'Baltic Sentry' to increase critical infrastructure security", NATO website https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_232122.htm 14 January 2025

The Nordstream gas pipelines destroyed in October 2023 were near the Danish island of Bornholm
("Master and commander: How is NATO trying to secure the Baltic Sea?", Liam Nolan, 18 Jan 2025, RTÉ, https://www.rte.ie/news/2025/0118/1491529-baltic-sea-cables-nato/).