New article from a Danish newspaper.
I had a photo from the paper version OCR'ed and translated with ChatGPT:
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When Copenhagen Airport examined radar system data following the drone reports on September 22, they obtained documentation of what staff had seen with their own eyes that dramatic evening.
The airport has not previously described this documentation in detail. Not until now.
The processed data showed lines on a map — radar tracks from objects that had moved in patterns with sudden V-shaped turns. Movements that neither birds nor airplanes can perform.
"It's drone behavior," says Morten Eli Lyngbæk, head of crisis management at Copenhagen Airport. He adds:
"You can see that it turns in the air in a way an aircraft could never turn. A bird wouldn't behave like that either."
Until now, Copenhagen Airport had avoided giving details about what concrete evidence — besides eyewitness accounts and video material — they had. In the two months since the incident, doubts have grown about whether there were drones at all that forced the largest airport in the Nordics to shut down for four hours.
If that were the case, it would look bad, since the observations did not only lead to the airport shutting down but also caused top-level authorities to speak very seriously about the drones.
For example, Copenhagen Police spokesperson Jens Jespersen spoke of a "capable actor" being behind it, and a few days later Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Denmark had been exposed to hybrid attacks.
The new information is based on radar data that "captures smaller objects in lower airspace," from which analysts have extracted the relevant tracks.
"With that, we can filter out everything like helicopters and airplanes and all kinds of birds. And then you see very clear traces of what is obviously drones," says Morten Eli Lyngbæk.
Kristeligt Dagblad has not seen the radar tracks, as Copenhagen Airport will not release the documentation, citing the ongoing investigation.
"A completely different matter"
The situation changes significantly for the drone case now that Copenhagen Airport's drone report is based on radar data. As defense consultant Andreas Graae from the Institute of Military Technology at the Royal Danish Defence College puts it:
"One should always be skeptical of eyewitness reports, but it is a completely different matter if they have radar data from a system that can distinguish between aircraft and drones. I'm not going to dispute that," he says.
The same assessment comes from Aalborg University professor Preben E. Mogensen, who researches the protection of critical infrastructure in the new drone reality.
"With the knowledge I have, I wouldn't doubt for a second that the airport's statement is correct," he says, adding:
"There's been a lot of talk about training aircraft, but they cannot move in the same patterns as drones."
Copenhagen Airport states that since September 22 they have acquired new equipment that allows them to proactively detect unauthorized drones, instead of having to identify them afterwards in radar data, as was the case this time.
Stars and sky observations
The doubt that has grown in recent months may be due to the airport's decision not to release documentation.
At the same time, a few weeks after the incident the government began speaking of "airspace observations" instead of "drone observations." Several media outlets described how a training aircraft had flown over the airport shortly before the shutdown and suggested this might explain the incident.
Asked why Copenhagen Airport has not simply presented the documentation if they want to put the speculation to rest, Morten Eli Lyngbæk replies:
"Of course we are not releasing material that the police use in their investigation. There is an ongoing investigation and we want to respect it."
Researcher in emergency management Rasmus Dahlberg still believes the public needs to see the evidence from the airport.
"I'm not trying to promote conspiracy theories, but I still haven't seen any official statements where the evidence is shown," Dahlberg says.
And the authorities may struggle to dispel the growing theories, because they are already spreading widely — and that comes with a somewhat bitter irony, Dahlberg notes.
"When doubt and insecurity arise in the population, hybrid attacks achieve their purpose.
"There are intelligence cultures that prefer to keep everything secret, but in doing so they serve the adversary's interests by giving space to alternative explanations and portraying themselves as an incapable actor," he says.
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I find it strange they only found out afterwards, when they said the first day they had proof.
