Gothenburg Landvetter airport closure due to reported drone incursion

[gargamel]

[Moderator note: these posts have been moved from the Copenhagen drone incident thread. Based on analysis by @Trailblazer below it seems plausible that this was the chain of events that led to the closure.

1) Initial drone observation was Lufthansa LH2430 approaching from the south and passing west of the airport at about 1623Z. This is corroborated by a photo supposedly showing the drone which matches the orientation of the plane as it moved away northwards.

2) Report reaches tower about 1626, and ATC immediately tells LH2430, which by this time has turned through 180º for landing from the north, to abort its approach. It does so, pulling up at 1627Z.

3) At about 1628, Brussels flight BEL2317 (BEL4DQ on the above screenshot), which had landed at 1625, is asked to keep an eye out for any drone activity over the taxiway as it taxis to the terminal. Coincidentally, at this exact time the Lufthansa flight on its missed approach is visually directly above the taxiway from the point of view of BEL2317, slowly moving leftwards over the runway, and the pilot reports this to ATC. ATC suggest that it may be the missed approach, but ask for more details of the drone's location.

4) About a minute after the last contact, about 1630, ATC again asks BEL2317 if they have visual contact with the drone. By this time the Lufthansa flight has turned and is flying almost directly away from the airport, so it appears to hover over the runway, visually close to the SAS flight (mistakenly referred to as "KLM" by the Brussels pilot) waiting at the far end of the runway (SAS59Z on the above screenshot). As the Lufthansa flight enters a holding pattern, it appears to move away to the left, behind the SAS plane – i.e. at its "4 o'clock" as the observing pilot reports.


This Sitrec recording has the camera moving with the Brussels plane as it taxis, and audio synced as well as I can based on the movements of the Brussels plane. The stationary SAS plane waiting on the runway is shown too.

Moderator note ends]


------------------------------------------------------
Original post below:

My last post unrelated to DK was moved into a seperate thread (re Belgium) but I don't think this will warrant its own thread unless it blows up further. As I perceive it, it's just another adjacent Scandinavian thing.

Landvetter, Gothenburg, Sweden:
https://www.svd.se/a/3ML5jX/dronare-pa-landvetter-flyg-omdirigeras

"The airspace over Landvetter airport is currently closed because of suspected drones. Airspace security is our first priority while police is investigating" says Swedavia, the civil aviation authority here.

I am deliberately omitting the "confirmed drones" jargon in said article, because that's what Swedish media always says, and to date each and every case of "drones" has always been decisively proven erroneous in time. But in-the-moment lazy reporting always messes it up, and rarely if ever do they do some actual, even basic research. Truckload of salt goes with all of it, in other words.

Observations of whatever are confirmed, somebody indeed did see something, there usually is video proof, but these observations being "drones" on the other hand...

 

[ThomasH]

My last post unrelated to DK was moved into a seperate thread (re Belgium) but I don't think this will warrant its own thread unless it blows up further. As I perceive it, it's just another adjacent Scandinavian thing.

Landvetter, Gothenburg, Sweden:
https://www.svd.se/a/3ML5jX/dronare-pa-landvetter-flyg-omdirigeras

"The airspace over Landvetter airport is currently closed because of suspected drones. Airspace security is our first priority while police is investigating" says Swedavia, the civil aviation authority here.

I am deliberately omitting the "confirmed drones" jargon in said article, because that's what Swedish media always says, and to date each and every case of "drones" has always been decisively proven erroneous in time. But in-the-moment lazy reporting always messes it up, and rarely if ever do they do some actual, even basic research. Truckload of salt goes with all of it, in other words.

Observations of whatever are confirmed, somebody indeed did see something, there usually is video proof, but these observations being "drones" on the other hand...

Could be a plane like all the rest....
One of these two maybe
https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?cu...onaws.com/17922/Gothenburg/20251106_221320.js

 

[Kyle Ferriter]

My last post unrelated to DK was moved into a seperate thread (re Belgium) but I don't think this will warrant its own thread unless it blows up further. As I perceive it, it's just another adjacent Scandinavian thing.

Landvetter, Gothenburg, Sweden:
https://www.svd.se/a/3ML5jX/dronare-pa-landvetter-flyg-omdirigeras

"The airspace over Landvetter airport is currently closed because of suspected drones. Airspace security is our first priority while police is investigating" says Swedavia, the civil aviation authority here.

I am deliberately omitting the "confirmed drones" jargon in said article, because that's what Swedish media always says, and to date each and every case has always been decisively proven erroneous in time. But in-the-moment lazy reporting always messes it up, and rarely if ever do they do some actual, even basic research. Truckload of salt goes with all of it, in other words.

Observations of whatever are confirmed, somebody indeed did see something, there usually is video proof, but these observations being "drones" on the other hand...

Can you quote from this article? Does it say what the source of the reported sighting was? Member of the public? Police? Airport staff? ATC?

 

[PennaLinjal]

Could be a plane like all the rest....
One of these two maybe
https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?cu...onaws.com/17922/Gothenburg/20251106_221320.js

Green light on the right side, so it is moving away from the photographer.

 

[ThomasH]

Green light on the right side, so it is moving away from the photographer.

I can't see any colors ?

 

[ThomasH]

Green light on the right side, so it is moving away from the photographer.

Maybe the other one then?
https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?cu...onaws.com/17922/Gothenburg/20251107_145227.js

 

[Trailblazer]

My last post unrelated to DK was moved into a seperate thread (re Belgium) but I don't think this will warrant its own thread unless it blows up further. As I perceive it, it's just another adjacent Scandinavian thing.

Landvetter, Gothenburg, Sweden:
https://www.svd.se/a/3ML5jX/dronare-pa-landvetter-flyg-omdirigeras

"The airspace over Landvetter airport is currently closed because of suspected drones. Airspace security is our first priority while police is investigating" says Swedavia, the civil aviation authority here.

The article says

The drone observation at Landvetter was made just before 6:00 p.m

but I don't think that can be right. Looking at the flight arrivals at Gothenburg, the last flight to land before the closure was BEL2317 from Brussels at 5:26pm (1626 UTC).

However the next incoming flight was LH2430 from Munich, which was diverted to Copenhagen. Flight radar playback shows that it lined up to land but then pulled up and diverted at 1627 UTC, just one minute after the Brussels flight had landed. So clearly the drone sighting must have been well before 6pm.

The only traffic in the vicinity at around the time the decision to close the airport came was... the Lufthansa flight, which was approaching from the south (yellow plane icon) as the Brussels flight (orange) was about to land.

Is it possible that the Lufthansa flight had to divert because it was itself mistaken for a drone?

 

[Trailblazer]

Sitrec view of the Lufthansa flight, viewed from the airport, compared with the drone photo. Just saying...

 

[ThomasH]

Sitrec view of the Lufthansa flight, viewed from the airport, compared with the drone photo. Just saying...

View attachment 85659

I think that photo was shot by a guy standing at the airport filming planes, so it might be the good old story:
1 There might be a drone.
2 Some random dude films a random plane and send it to the media
3 This is now the drone.

 

[Kyle Ferriter]

Google Translation of this: https://www.svd.se/a/3ML5jX/dronare-pa-landvetter-flyg-omdirigeras is below.
svd.se has a paywall but that article has the exact same content as this open-access article from the original reporting outlet: https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/XjG5wE/dronare-pa-landvetter-flyg-omdirigeras

Drone alarm closed the airspace at Landvetter
The airspace above Landvetter Airport had to be temporarily closed on Thursday evening after drones were observed around the airport. Photo: Adam Ihse/TT
The airspace over Landvetter outside Gothenburg was closed for several hours on Thursday evening after drones were seen at the airport.
Several departures and arrivals were cancelled, and the Armed Forces were involved.
TT
Published12:19
At 21.25, state airport operator Swedavia announced in a statement: "The police have now informed that the incident is over and that we are therefore planning to restart traffic again."
The drone observation at Landvetter was made shortly before 18:00.
- I can confirm that drones are observed at Landvetter, said Björn Stavås at the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority to Aftonbladet, which first reported on the incident.
"Safety always comes first and the airspace is closed while the police investigate," announced Susanne Norman, operations manager at the state airport operator Swedavia, in a written statement to TT.
All departing flights from Landvetter were either postponed or canceled entirely. As for arriving flights, several had to be cancelled, and several more arriving flights had to be diverted.
The police were alerted to the airport outside Gothenburg and according to Göteborgs-Posten, the incident is being investigated as suspected aviation sabotage.
Aftonbladet reports that the Swedish Armed Forces were also involved.
- We support the police with what we can, said Petra Könberg, on-duty communicator at the Armed Forces, but without specifying how.
Infrastructure Minister Andreas Carlson (KD) said in a comment to TT:
"The government is following the information about the presence of drones at Landvetter and is in close contact with the relevant authorities."
Recently, sightings of drones near airports have occurred in, for example, Brussels, Liège, Hanover, Copenhagen and Oslo.
TT

Additional from Reuters https://www.reuters.com/world/traff...irport-after-drone-sighting-daily-2025-11-06/.

GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Nov 6 (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.
The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.
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

As @Trailblazer notes, the first diversion was at 16:27Z, when LH2430 from Munich pulled up while in the late stages of its descent. But Reuters said a drone was seen at 16:41Z, which is 17:41 local, arguably "just before 6pm". They don't say whether that is the initial sighting. Since LH2430 had been diverted 14 minutes earlier, probably not. But what was happening at 16:41Z? LH2430 had left its temporary holding pattern and was heading back to fly relatively low over the airport on its way to Copenhagen. And two other flights, BA792 and LH818 that were intending to land were at 15k and 16.6k ft, nearby. LH818 was in a brief circular holding pattern just south of the airport and then joined the other 2 to divert to CPH. Could it be that LH2430 was both the cause of its own initial diversion at 16:27, and part of the cause of a later sighting of "one or more drones" at 16:41?

One of the Aftonbladet articles that other articles were referring to, and which refers to an unspecified witness, is: https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/eMl5Wa/dronare-pa-landvetter. Google Translated below.

Drone at Landvetter
Published 2025-11-06 18.07

A reader captured the drone pictured at the airport.Photo: Reader image
The airspace over Landvetter Airport in Gothenburg was closed due to drone alarms.
Flights were cancelled and planes were rerouted.
Now Swedavia announces that air traffic will resume.
"The police have now informed that the incident is ending and thus we are planning to start the traffic again", writes Ellen Laurin at Swedavia's press service at 9.25pm.
At least one drone was observed just before 6 p.m. Thursday night.
– I can confirm that drones are observed at Landvetter. There is currently a break in air traffic, said Björn Stavås at the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority at first.
The airspace was closed.
Several police patrols are at the airport.
Photo: Adam Ihse/TT
Two flights, one from Munich and one from Frankfurt, have been diverted to Copenhagen. A flight from Landvetter to Munich has been cancelled.
– You stop the traffic and inform those in the air about what has been reported, says Björn Stavås.
The government follows the situation
Several police patrols were present at the airport.
– We are there trying to check this information, says Johan Håkansson at the police in region West.
The Armed Forces were also engaged with personnel on site.
– We have received a request for support from the police that we have confirmed. We support the police with what we can, says Petra Könberg, communicator on duty at the Swedish Armed Forces.
They do not want to go into exactly what type of resources the Armed Forces contribute.
"The government follows the data on the presence of drones at Landvetter and is in close contact with the relevant authorities", says infrastructure minister Andreas Carlson (KD) in a comment.
"Saw something small"
A person Aftonbladet spoke to captured the drone in a picture.
– I stood and photographed the plan and then I saw something small in the sky that I photographed. Then I understood that it was a drone, because it was so small and had lights, says the person.
A screenshot from Swedavia's website at 8 p.m. on Thursday shows how several flights have been diverted.

So who is the witness they talked to? Is that the same witness who made the initial report to the police/airport? So much reporting around incidents like this lack such critical details like "what is this based on" and "who did what, and when".

I'm not saying this is specifically related but I happen to be aware of a Reddit user in Gothenburg who had posted a few times in recent months including on Sep 23 just after the Copenhagen Sep 22 incident, about having seen a lot of stuff in the sky on a regular basis they thought was strange, and they included videos they filmed which appear to show just normal air traffic but they think shows some kind of anomalous UFO.

(edited to links without embeds)
www.reddit.com/r/InterdimensionalNHI/comments/1n6wte4/what_do_you_think_this_is_gothenburg_sweden/
www.reddit.com/r/InterdimensionalNHI/comments/1nos9lw/this_is_getting_ridiculous/

 

[PennaLinjal]

Paywall, but possible to read the most important part about media and drone observations https://magasinetfilter.se/kommentar/alla-observanter-kan-visst-ha-fel-om-dronarna/

This one with details https://www.gp.se/krim/polisen-om-d...fortsatt.6ca30f75-759d-442c-bc8f-f02725a85c77

"But so far, the police do not know if it was actually a drone that caused the operation at Landvetter or if it was something else entirely.

– It is too early to say. So far, we have not been able to identify that it was a drone, says police spokesperson Jennifer Last."

...

"It came in as a completely normal SOS Alarm after several people called 112. Both staff and private individuals at Landvetter Airport called, says Jennifer Last."

 

[Kyle Ferriter]

Paywall, but possible to read the most important part about media and drone observations https://magasinetfilter.se/kommentar/alla-observanter-kan-visst-ha-fel-om-dronarna/

This one with details https://www.gp.se/krim/polisen-om-d...fortsatt.6ca30f75-759d-442c-bc8f-f02725a85c77

"But so far, the police do not know if it was actually a drone that caused the operation at Landvetter or if it was something else entirely.

– It is too early to say. So far, we have not been able to identify that it was a drone, says police spokesperson Jennifer Last."

...

"It came in as a completely normal SOS Alarm after several people called 112. Both staff and private individuals at Landvetter Airport called, says Jennifer Last."

Google Translated from https://www.gp.se/krim/polisen-om-d...fortsatt.6ca30f75-759d-442c-bc8f-f02725a85c77:

At 5:41 p.m. on Thursday evening, police were alerted to suspected drones over Landvetter Airport. The armed forces were engaged and air traffic was stopped.

So this references the time of 16:41Z (5:41pm local), which Reuters did as well. But Reuters said:

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.

And there is a slight difference there. GP.se said 16:41Z is when is when "police were alerted", while Reuters said "drones were observed [...] around".

The disruption to air traffic clearly began prior to 16:41Z, when flight LH2430 (plane registration: D-AIZN) halted its approach and entered a nearby holding pattern prior to being diverted to Copenhagen at around 16:27Z. Perhaps 16:41 is when the airport called the police and ATC officially halted arrivals/departures and made official diversions for incoming flights, but ATC had temporarily paused incoming flights prior to that, around 16:27 UTC, because a suspected drone was reported to them just prior to that.

16:41 is about when plane D-AIZN leaves its holding pattern just north of the city to divert to CPH. So the shutdown and diversion decision might have been made at about 16:41Z. Though D-AIZN also leaving its holding pattern at 16:41Z might just be a coincidence. The other two planes which were also in line to land at Gothenburg behind D-AIZN get in line behind it and follow it to CPH, so taht they are in the same order to CPH that they were to GOT. So that is probably why those two don't also obviously change their flight paths towards CPH at the same time.

 

[Trailblazer]

I can't see any colors ?

It's overexposed but boosting the saturation shows the colours.

 

[ThomasH]

It's overexposed but boosting the saturation shows the colours.

View attachment 85674

Brilliant! Thanks

 

[Kyle Ferriter]

Sitrec view of the Lufthansa flight, viewed from the airport, compared with the drone photo. Just saying...

Just to keep a trail of where imagery is sourced from, and the original files, this photo appears in one of Aftonbladet's articles from that evening. Sourced from a witness who says they were onsite to photograph planes but saw something they thought was a drone. It's not clear in the reporting if this person was involved in the report to the airport of the drone sighting that initiated the shutdown. But this person would have had no prior reason to think there were drones flying over Gothenburg airport. The shutdown probably occurred later and this photographer would not have been aware of an airport shutdown due to drones at the time they took this photo. So it seems very plausible that this witness is involved in why the airport shut down.

This article was published by Aftonbladet at 2025-11-06 18:07 local time. Which is a mere 26 minutes after it seems the report to police about drones happened. Whoever took this photo must have like, immediately sent it to the news outlet. And the news outlet immediately published it without doing much checking.
https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/eMl5Wa/dronare-pa-landvetter

The article includes it as avif (with no original file metadata) but I have converted it to png and attached below since metabunk isn't letting me upload avif.

EDIT: added article PDF.

EDIT2: sitrec link:
https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?cu.../Gothenburg_20251106_1623Z/20251109_064928.js

 

[Trailblazer]

The ATC audio from Landvetter airport is available from LiveATC.net for the drone incident on November 6 (archive is only freely available for 7 days; select ESGG from the dropdown).

Certainly it looks as if at least one pilot mistook the Lufthansa flight for a drone. The tower controller suggested it was actually the plane, but then seems to have dropped that idea for some reason.

This is the conversation between the tower and Brussels flight SN2317 (BEL4DQ) which was the last flight to land before the closure, touching down at 1625 UTC:

Tower: Beeline 4 Delta Quebec when taxiing inbound be aware of reports about a drone in the vicinity of taxiway Zulu. So if you see anything on your way in please advise.
BEL4DQ: Negative, we didn't see it on the approach but we have it in sight now.
Tower: Beeline 4 Delta Quebec OK exactly where do you see the drone right now?
BEL4DQ: It looks to pass just above the runway in front of the KLM if I am not mistaken. [pause] It's on our, uh, 11 o'clock right now.
Tower: Beeline 4 Delta Quebec. OK, yeah, we... is that perhaps a missed approach made by the approach to avoid [laughs] the [inaudible] right now? Which height do we estimate the drone at?
BEL4DQ: Ah, difficult to see, to say, sorry.
Tower: OK, yeah. So just let me know if you see anything.
BEL4DQ: Roger.
[approx 1 minute later]
Tower: Beeline 4 Delta Quebec are you still visual with the... thing?
BEL4DQ: Beeline 4 Delta Quebec it looks to be... uh, there is an aircraft on the runway, it looks to be at [its?] 4 o'clock but... above the trees over there at... uh I think the runway is clear now, it's moving away from the runway. It's in front of the standing aircraft on the runway.
Tower: Beeline 4 Delta Quebec could you please say which o'clock you have contact right now?
BEL4DQ: From our side, stopped in the middle of the taxiway between Yankee and Hotel, I don't know if you can see us, it's on our... let's see, 10 o'clock and it's moving away I think.

The reported location matches the Lufthansa flight which aborted its approach. I think the pilot mistakenly referred to the plane on the runway as "KLM" when it was actually an SAS flight (SK158/SAS59Z) waiting to take off. In fact there was a KLM flight there as well, which does not show on the flight radar.

Here you can see that the Lufthansa flight (DLH1AC) would have appeared to be aligned with the SAS plane on the runway, as viewed from BEL4DQ:

A little while later it has moved further to the left (from 11 o'clock to 10 o'clock, per the pilot's report) and is moving away:

This is the view from the Brussels aircraft on the taxiway. The blue plane icon marks the location of the aircraft waiting at the far end of the runway. The green path is the Lufthansa flight - the path starts at the lower left of the loop, then heads right, then "upwards", just to the left of the taxiway, then off to the left and away:

I can't give accurate timestamps on the audio at the moment because the MP3 file behaves really weirdly when playing it back, with the elapsed time jumping around randomly.

 

[jarlrmai]

That MP3 is weird...

 

[jarlrmai]

I re-encoded it with FFmpeg via Audacity.

 

[Trailblazer]

I re-encoded it with FFmpeg via Audacity.

That seems to have sorted out the timestamp issue to some extent, although when skipping back the timestamps still seem to act strangely.

So if we assume that the file starts at exactly 1600Z, then the first mention of a drone comes at 16:26:47:

KLM Six Zero Quebec you'll have to stand by, we've had a report about a drone in the vicinity of the airport

then again from 16:27:41 when a Finnair flight requests permission to taxi:

FIN9LK: Finnair Nine Lima Kilo request taxi.
Tower: Yeah Finnair Nine Lima Kilo stand by while we have a report about a drone in the vicinity of Zulu [i.e. taxiway Z].
FIN9LK: OK we heard about that. We stand by. Nine Lima Kilo.
[16:27:58]Tower: And Beeline Four Delta Quebec, when taxiing inbound be aware of reports about a drone in the vicinity of taxiway Zulu. So if you see anything on your way in please advise [audio continues as I posted in post #578]

The callsign is clear here, it is KLM60Q which is a scheduled flight from Gothenburg to Amsterdam. However it does not show up on the flight tracker, and FlightAware doesn't show a flight on Thursday November 6. Presumably it was cancelled and never tracked.

Flightradar24 shows it (as KL1236), it was scheduled but did not fly until the following morning:

 

[Trailblazer]

Again if those timestamps are accurate, the second report from BEL4DQ about the drone "moving away" comes at almost exactly 1630Z. At this time the Lufthansa flight is here, approximately 13 miles (21km) from the Brussels plane on the taxiway.

Sitrec view:

16:28:12 "just above the runway, in front of the KLM"

16:29:55 "there is an aircraft on the runway, it [i.e. the drone] looks to be at its four o'clock... [16:30:08] it's moving away from the runway"

16:30:30 "it's on our 10 o'clock and it's moving away I think"

Here is the Sitrec file. If you sync it to the audio it is very apparent that the Brussels pilot is watching the Lufthansa flight. The plane appears to stop and hover directly above the end of the runway for about a minute, starting at 1628:50, before moving off.

https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?cu...g drone viewed from BEL4DQ/20251109_123237.js

 

[Trailblazer]

Here is the Sitrec, synced to the ATC recording. I don't think there can be any doubt that the Brussels pilot was watching the Lufthansa flight. The flightpath of the holding pattern coincidentally made the plane look as if it was hovering right over the runway. (The ground detail is quite dark in the video, but the taxiway is on the right, straight in front of the camera, and the runway is parallel and to the left, on the other side of the grassy area.)

Notice also that the Brussels pilot says he "didn't see the drone on the approach". That's because the Lufthansa flight was behind him.

 

[jarlrmai]

You could add both tracks and then put one as the camera and the other as the target.

 

[Trailblazer]

You could add both tracks and then put one as the camera and the other as the target.

The Brussels plane is stationary on the taxiway. The camera is in the right location (actually probably slightly too high, 40ft above the ground, but it makes minimal difference to the view).

Here is a zip of all six audio files (including the one you already converted).

 

[jarlrmai]

The Brussels plane is stationary on the taxiway. The camera is in the right location (actually probably slightly too high, 40ft above the ground, but it makes minimal difference to the view).

Here is a zip of all six audio files (including the one you already converted).

This should be everything re-encoded. Anything wrong/missing let me know

 

[Trailblazer]

The main mystery to me seems to be why the tower did not confirm that what the Brussels flight captain saw was the Lufthansa flight. As soon as the pilot reported it the controller asked if he was actually looking at the missed approach, but then nothing more was said about it.

From the tower location there should have also been a clear view of the Lufthansa flight:

However looking from the tower towards the runway, the Lufthansa flight was a long way off to the right. To fit all three planes into this view you need to widen the field of view to almost 110 degrees. If the drone was being described as being close to the KLM flight on the runway, would the controller make that connection? It's frustrating that he didn't mention it again though – it could have helped resolve the incident there and then!

 

[Ann K]

So clearly the drone sighting must have been well before 6pm.

You're trying to determine "drone" times by using known flight times...or it might really have been a drone, time unspecified, with some unknown time lapse between sighting and reporting and closure. And perhaps to viewers, once they've seen a drone, everything looks like a drone.

 

[Trailblazer]

You're trying to determine "drone" times by using known flight times...or it might really have been a drone, time unspecified, with some unknown time lapse between sighting and reporting and closure. And perhaps to viewers, once they've seen a drone, everything looks like a drone.

To clarify, I was trying to determine the time of the sighting. If the airport closure was caused by the sighting, then the sighting must have been before the airport was closed. And the first flight diversion came at 5.27pm local time (1627Z), so the sighting must have been before that - and not the "just before 6pm" reported.

And as the ATC recording showed, the first mention of a drone by the tower was indeed at 5.26pm local time.

 

[Trailblazer]

Here's another Sitrec, showing the Lufthansa track as viewed from a likely planespotting place (near the cargo area). This is sped up 10 times.

https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?cu...77/LH2430 seen from ground/20251109_155219.js

Looking at playback, this approach from the south doesn't seem very common at Gothenburg, which may be where the confusion came from. It doesn't look like a plane approaching the airport, because it then gets further away again. The impression from this vantage point is off an object steadily rising and then falling as it moves from left to right.

 

[Trailblazer]

I have also downloaded the ATC recordings covering the period during the shutdown. They are mostly dead air but there are occasional conversations in Swedish. Is there anyone here who can translate? I feel like AI might not be up to the task of transcribing and translating Swedish yet...

[00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.000] That's not a castle from canal tax craters.
[00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:12.000] Auntie, come again.
[00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:19.000] Yes, hello there. We have Gothenburg on the next sector. We covered hear how long it looks.
[00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:27.000] I'm the chef to think and green over neighbors. We calculate until when you die there are 2200 dear.

 

[Kyle Ferriter]

I have also downloaded the ATC recordings covering the period during the shutdown. They are mostly dead air but there are occasional conversations in Swedish. Is there anyone here who can translate? I feel like AI might not be up to the task of transcribing and translating Swedish yet...

[00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.000] That's not a castle from canal tax craters.
[00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:12.000] Auntie, come again.
[00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:19.000] Yes, hello there. We have Gothenburg on the next sector. We covered hear how long it looks.
[00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:27.000] I'm the chef to think and green over neighbors. We calculate until when you die there are 2200 dear.

What time window of recordings is this? I have whisperx and argos-translate installed locally and am working through the transcriptions from 1600Z

 

[Trailblazer]

What time window of recordings is this? I have whisperx and argos-translate installed locally and am working through the transcriptions from 1600Z

That attempt was using Whisper. This was the file, time window 1930Z-1800Z. The (fairly brief) conversation starts at 5:48. I thought I could hear the word "drone" a couple of times.

 

[Kyle Ferriter]

I have also downloaded the ATC recordings covering the period during the shutdown. They are mostly dead air but there are occasional conversations in Swedish. Is there anyone here who can translate? I feel like AI might not be up to the task of transcribing and translating Swedish yet...

[00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.000] That's not a castle from canal tax craters.
[00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:12.000] Auntie, come again.
[00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:19.000] Yes, hello there. We have Gothenburg on the next sector. We covered hear how long it looks.
[00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:27.000] I'm the chef to think and green over neighbors. We calculate until when you die there are 2200 dear.

This is what I got for that file using the whisper v2-large model. It looks like the model automatically converted the Swedish portions to English because I requested English, which I wasn't expecting. Except for "tornet", which means "tower". Not sure if there's a way to make it not do the translation, so I can handle the translation separately. But translation is probably much more accurate than the transcription itself, so doing the translation as a separate step probably doesn't matter.

WEBVTT

05:48.601 --> 05:56.589
Tornet... Tornet Gothenburg from Scandinavian 6-6-Petter.

05:56.609 --> 05:58.411
Please come in.

05:58.431 --> 05:59.653
Yes, hello there.

05:59.893 --> 06:03.637
We have Gothenburg on the next sector here.

06:04.057 --> 06:07.701
We would like to hear how the situation is with you.

06:07.721 --> 06:09.863
Right now it is still closed due to drones.

06:09.883 --> 06:12.787
And we are calculating for the upcoming opening 22-00.

06:13.587 --> 06:16.110
But we don't know if it can be extended or shortened.

06:16.799 --> 06:18.869
Yes, understood.

06:18.950 --> 06:20.055
22Z is the latest.

06:20.176 --> 06:20.698
Thank you very much.

06:21.060 --> 06:22.165
Hope to see you later.

06:22.185 --> 06:23.552
Yes, you are welcome later.

 

[Kyle Ferriter]

Here's a zip file with all the Tower and Approach recordings and whisper large-v2 transcripts from 1600Z - 2200Z.

You can see the time boundaries for each 30 minute segment on liveatc are not exact, probably so it doesn't cut in the middle of a sentence or something. So some are slightly more or less than 30 minutes, and some contain overlapping sentences at the start/end.

 

[jarlrmai]

I have a bi-lingual Swedish friend if you have transcripts or small extracts of voice in Swedish I can send them.

 

[Trailblazer]

Here's a zip file with all the Tower and Approach recordings and whisper large-v2 transcripts from 1600Z - 2200Z.

You can see the time boundaries for each 30 minute segment on liveatc are not exact, probably so it doesn't cut in the middle of a sentence or something. So some are slightly more or less than 30 minutes, and some contain overlapping sentences at the start/end.

Thanks for this.
The start times of the various files (Approach, Tower and combined) don't seem to coincide, so it's hard to know exactly what time the first mention of the drone was.

The first time we hear mention of it is on the Approach audio:

Lufthansa One Alpha Charlie, climb to 3000ft, climb to 3000ft on heading due to drone in the tower.

On the Approach clip the start of this transmission comes at 25:50.

On the combined clip this transmission comes at 27:15, and the start overlaps with the word "Quebec" in the Tower transmission "Beeline Four Delta Quebec, taxi to stand 13 via Yankee Hotel."

And on the Tower clip that line comes at 26:55.

(All these timings relate to the 1600Z sections of audio.)

Looking at the track log of the Lufthansa flight, it was climbing by 16:27:09, and the rate of descent had decreased significantly by 16:26:52, suggesting it was already responding to that request.

The transcripts also show where the KLM flight was - it was still waiting at stand 17, so the plane referred to by the BEL4DQ pilot on the runway must have been the SAS flight after all.

 

[ThomasH]

It's really interesting, but I can't figure out where we are in this thread
I can translate Swedish if you have a specific clip.

 

[Trailblazer]

It's really interesting, but I can't figure out where we are in this thread
I can translate Swedish if you have a specific clip.

In summary: I am pretty sure this is what happened:

1) Initial drone observation was Lufthansa LH2430 approaching from the south and passing west of the airport at about 1623Z. This is corroborated by a photo supposeldy showing the drone which matches the orientation of the plane as it moved away northwards.

2) Report reached tower about 1626, and ATC immediately requested LH2430, which by this time had turned through 180º for landing from the north, to abort its approach.

3) At about 1628, Brussels flight BEL2317, which had landed at 1625, is asked to keep an eye out for any drone activity over the taxiway as it taxis to the terminal. Coincidentally, at this exact time the Lufthansa flight on its missed approach is visually directly above the taxiway from the point of view of BEL2317, slowly moving leftwards over the runway, and the pilot reports this to ATC. ATC suggest that it may be the missed approach, but ask for more details of the drone's location.

4) About a minute after the last contact, about 1630, ATC again asks BEL2317 if they have visual contact with the drone. By this time the Lufthansa flight has turned and is flying almost directly away from the airport, so it appears to hover over the runway, visually close to the SAS flight (mistakenly referred to as "KLM" by the Brussels pilot) waiting at the far end of the runway. As the Lufthansa flight enters a holding pattern, it appears to move away to the left, behind the SAS plane (at its "4 o'clock" the observing pilot reports).

I have done an improved Sitrec recording with the camera moving with the Brussels plane as it taxis, and syncing the audio as well as I can based on the movements of the Brussels plane. I've also put a stationary plane in the location of the SAS flight waiting on the runway.

You can see that the Lufthansa track matches the pilot's description perfectly.

Sitrec permalink: https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?custom=https://sitrec.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/5177/Gothenburg drone viewed from BEL4DQ/20251110_152531.js

@Mick West is it possible to import audio directly into Sitrec? I had to do a screen recording with the audio playing separately, which is a bit clunky.

 

[ThomasH]

In summary: I am pretty sure this is what happened:

1) Initial drone observation was Lufthansa LH2430 approaching from the south and passing west of the airport at about 1623Z. This is corroborated by a photo supposeldy showing the drone which matches the orientation of the plane as it moved away northwards.

2) Report reached tower about 1626, and ATC immediately requested LH2430, which by this time had turned through 180º for landing from the north, to abort its approach.

3) At about 1628, Brussels flight BEL2317, which had landed at 1625, is asked to keep an eye out for any drone activity over the taxiway as it taxis to the terminal. Coincidentally, at this exact time the Lufthansa flight on its missed approach is visually directly above the taxiway from the point of view of BEL2317, slowly moving leftwards over the runway, and the pilot reports this to ATC. ATC suggest that it may be the missed approach, but ask for more details of the drone's location.

4) About a minute after the last contact, about 1630, ATC again asks BEL2317 if they have visual contact with the drone. By this time the Lufthansa flight has turned and is flying almost directly away from the airport, so it appears to hover over the runway, visually close to the SAS flight (mistakenly referred to as "KLM" by the Brussels pilot) waiting at the far end of the runway. As the Lufthansa flight enters a holding pattern, it appears to move away to the left, behind the SAS plane (at its "4 o'clock" the observing pilot reports).

I have done an improved Sitrec recording with the camera moving with the Brussels plane as it taxis, and syncing the audio as well as I can based on the movements of the Brussels plane. I've also put a stationary plane in the location of the SAS flight waiting on the runway.

You can see that the Lufthansa track matches the pilot's description perfectly.

View attachment 85768

Sitrec permalink: https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?custom=https://sitrec.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/5177/Gothenburg drone viewed from BEL4DQ/20251110_152531.js

@Mick West is it possible to import audio directly into Sitrec? I had to do a screen recording with the audio playing separately, which is a bit clunky.

This is mental!
I would really like to make a longer YouTube video with it, is it ok with you if I "steal" your great research - I will credit you and this forum

 

[Mick West]

@Mick West is it possible to import audio directly into Sitrec? I had to do a screen recording with the audio playing separately, which is a bit clunky.

Not yet, sorry. I'll add that as a feature request

 

[gargamel]

I haven't really followed this since the initial article I posted, but as I was glancing through the recent contributions I saw that people were discussing transcribing and translating Swedish radio comms. I can do that, if required, just point me right.

edit: I see there are a number of folks already offering such services, so nevermind