Lost drone over Finland?

[KalleMP]

In a Finnish language Facebook post about a week ago, 11 June 2025, there was mention of a Northrop Grumman Global Hawk drone that had gone astray and possibly crash landed in central Finland near Tampere.

From what I read it probably took off from Sicily and flew towards the Black Sea. En route it had a technical difficulties and made to return. Instead of then landing in Sicily it diverted to an airport near Tampere, Finland, passed the runway and soon after which the transponder signal was lost. Various search flights were observed on flight tracking platforms in the area.

One comment, (loosely translated from quote below) suggests that it turned off the transponder, rose to 17km and apparently returned to Sicily. A flight path for a return leg via the Black Sea and Turkey was seen by the commenter but not shared though.

It is not mentioned if this was the return leg before the diversion to Finland or after.
The timeline of when the transponder signal was lost is not clear.

"Ilmeisesti löysi kotiinsa takaisin Sisiliaan, katosi kyllä totaalisesti kartalta, kytki pois tutkaseurannan ja nousi 17 km korkeuteen. Löysin kyllä kuvan paluulennosta Mustanmeren ja Turkin kautta, joku oli onnistunut sen tallentamaan."

My question is has there been any news coverage of this event, I have seen none, did it even happen..


Source: https://www.facebook.com/krista.kristanen/posts/pfbid0GnmC5UD4FBSectCyYGvRWgnpfzdNDX4qFiQvXXfUNs8gsC6TCcEwUQztZ2rQXo4Kl

There is a link to a 'X' post that shows the flight path of the drone near Tampere with a transponder code of 7600 suggesting it had lost ability to communicate via radio.

Source: https://x.com/GCFlightAlerts/status/1932693794782159128

In the FB post there are also a few other images that show some other flight tracks of what are supposed to be search flights in the area.

Regards

Kalle
--
Helsinki, Finalnd

 

[Mendel]

From what I read it probably took off from Sicily and flew towards the Black Sea. En route it had a technical difficulties and made to return. Instead of then landing in Sicily it diverted to an airport near Tampere, Finland, passed the runway and soon after which the transponder signal was lost. Various search flights were observed on flight tracking platforms in the area.

There's unofficial news that the US is relocating some drones from Sigonella/Sicily to Tampere/Finland, so that wouldn't be a diversion.

Article:

1. UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS (UAS) LOST LINK

Code 7400 may be transmitted by unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) when the control link between the aircraft and the pilot is lost. Lost link procedures are programmed into the flight management system and associated with the flight plan being flown.

Some UA airframes (Global Hawk) will not be programmed upon the NAS Automation roll out to squawk 7400. These airframes will continue to squawk 7600 should a lost link occur. The ATC Specialist must apply the same procedures described above.

Source: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/atc_html/chap5_section_2.html

I don't see any evidence to back up the claim that the drone was "lost", so there's nothing to confirm or debunk there.

 

[FatPhil]

Were they just moving the drones from Italy to Finland in order to follow through with this?

Suomi on kiinnostunut saamaan tukeutumispaikan, josta Naton suuret, miehittämättömät tiedusteludroonit voisivat toimia.

Droonien tukikohta on nykyisin Italiassa. Sieltä koneet lentävät eri puolilla Naton ilmatilaa. Niitä on lennätetty myös Suomen ilmatilassa keräämässä tiedustelutietoa itärajalla.

Droonien tulevan toiminnan suunnittelu on Ylen tietojen mukaan Natossa alkuvaiheessa. Sotilasliitolla olisi kuitenkin tarve löytää tukikohta Pohjois-Euroopasta.

Sijaintipaikasta on kilpailua Nato-maiden kesken, eikä asiaa ole jäsenmaiden kesken linjattu vielä poliittisesti. Ratkaisut asiasta tehtäneen ensi vuonna.

Ylen tietojen mukaan Suomi on tarjonnut Natolle tukikohtaa. Suomen ilmavoimilla on vaihtoehtoina neljä tukikohtaa, ja näistä Pirkkala voisi olla todennäköinen sijoituspaikka.

-- https://yle.fi/a/74-20123083

Summary: Finland offers a to host NATO drones in northern Europe, currently in Italy, and suggests a place near Tampere.

EDIT: for completeness, that story's from 7.11.2024 15:56, updated 8.11.2024 11:27

 

[Mauro]

https://www.itamilradar.com reports about aereonaval acitvities in the Mediterranean, including surveillance flights originating in Italy.

But it seems it happened on June 16, not June 11, and the drone was not lost:

On June 16, we tracked a highly unusual mission carried out by a NATO Northrop Grumman RQ-4D Phoenix drone (reg. MM-AV-SA0017, callsign MAGMA10). The unmanned aerial vehicle took off from Sigonella Air Base in Sicily and initially headed south, conducting a surveillance pass off the coast of Libya.


After this initial phase, the drone reversed course and turned north toward the Black Sea. Once over the region, it carried out an extensive signals intelligence (SIGINT) mission across the entire basin, spending a significant amount of time in the eastern area. During this phase, the drone briefly squawked transponder code 7600, indicating a temporary radio communication failure. However, the issue did not interrupt the overall progress of the mission, which continued without incident.


Following the completion of its Black Sea operations, the RQ-4D continued its journey north and eventually reached Finland. There, it will participate in NATO's Atlantic Trident 2025 exercise, a major multinational training event focused on integration and interoperability.


What makes this mission particularly notable is that, unlike previous similar operations, the drone did not return to Sigonella. Instead, it landed at Tampere Air Base in Finland, from where it is expected to operate in the coming days.

https://www.itamilradar.com/2025/06/18/a-very-long-day-for-magma/

 

[KalleMP]

https://www.itamilradar.com reports about aereonaval acitvities in the Mediterranean, including surveillance flights originating in Italy.

But it seems it happened on June 16, not June 11, and the drone was not lost:

View attachment 81649

https://www.itamilradar.com/2025/06/18/a-very-long-day-for-magma/

Thank you.

I reposted the report I saw on the 12th and the registration numbers do not match so it appears that this is not the same incident, probably not a failure but a repeated pattern.

The route map matches what I though was the route described for the 11th June drone and the events and other reports above also suggest there was little that was unexpected.

I now suppose that the loss of radio communications in the Black Sea may be a result of jamming or exercises relating to jamming and the diversion to Tampere was part of the mission plan after reconnaissance in the Black Sea.

The search grids in the area are the only remaining anomaly but they may too have been training. I will share your link to the similar flight onto the FB post to provide perspective.

Regards

Kalle
--
Helsinki, Finland

 

[Mauro]

I reposted the report I saw on the 12th and the registration numbers do not match so it appears that this is not the same incident, probably not a failure but a repeated pattern.

Where is the report you re-posted? If it's in the Facebook link, I cannot access it. Can you post a readable screenshot?

Alternatively, itamilradar might have got the date wrong (but they are usually a quite reliable website). Or, as you say, the reported flight was part of a repeating pattern, but I find this strange too because itamilradar says clearly that there were 'previous similar operations' but this is the first time the drone landed in Tampere, and this looks a big mistake for them to make. I'd like to have a proof there was a similar incident five days before so I can contact them and ask for explanations.

 

[KalleMP]

Where is the report you re-posted? If it's in the Facebook link, I cannot access it. Can you post a readable screenshot?

Alternatively, itamilradar might have got the date wrong (but they are usually a quite reliable website). Or, as you say, the reported flight was part of a repeating pattern, but I find this strange too because itamilradar says clearly that there were 'previous similar operations' but this is the first time the drone landed in Tampere, and this looks a big mistake for them to make. I'd like to have a proof there was a similar incident five days before so I can contact them and ask for explanations.

Here screen shot just now from my FB wall (I squashed the image). The first report I saw linked in the start of this thread was on the 11th. I reposted on the 12th and both dates are visible. The flight track posted above that matches the descriptions from the 11th was dated the 16th.

I believe at least two such flights have occurred. If the drone flights do not all show up on the flight trackers then there could have been many more flights or those are the only two.

I am still curious if the flight on the 11th crashed, landed near Tampere or returned to Sicily but it seems the launch from Sicily, visit to Black Sea and then redirect to Tampere is not unique.

Regards

Kalle
--
Helsinki, Finland

 

[Mauro]

Here screen shot just now from my FB wall (I squashed the image)

Thank you! In post #5 you also mentioned 'the registration numbers do not match', can you post also the other registration number you are referring to? That would be useful to know.

 

[Mendel]

I am still curious if the flight on the 11th crashed, landed near Tampere or returned to Sicily but it seems the launch from Sicily, visit to Black Sea and then redirect to Tampere is not unique.

It wouldn't be a "redirect", it would simply be how the mission was planned originally. This is especially true if the drone squawked 7600, because (see above) that meant the drone operator had lost contact with it, and the drone was now executing its pre-planned mission autonomously (by itself).

 

[MapperGuy]

There is a You-tube video posted 5 days ago showing the landing of a Globalhawk at Tampere.
Doesn't say what date the video was made.
You-tube comments are in Finnish.
The video does not show touchdown but the approach looks very steady, and no boom before the end.

NATO northtrop grumman Q4 globalhawk landing at Tampere-Pirkkala

 

[KalleMP]

Thank you! In post #5 you also mentioned 'the registration numbers do not match', can you post also the other registration number you are referring to? That would be useful to know.

It is in the original post above. The first line of the third image looks like MM.AV.SA.001 (the dot appears to be a middle dot but not a hyphen, hard to see and also not possible to paste here into the metabunk editor for some reason), this was one of the images posted in comments to the original FB post I saw.

The other reg number on the 16th flight track map appears to be MM-AV-SA0017 The punctuation is slightly different but that may be a platform issue. However one has a 4 digit number the other is a 3 digit number with an additional punctuation mark. I have no idea how the reg numbers are formatted or generated. I am still assuming that there are at least two instances.

Regards

Kalle
--
Helsinki, Finalnd

 

[KalleMP]

There is a You-tube video posted 5 days ago showing the landing of a Globalhawk at Tampere.
Doesn't say what date the video was made.
You-tube comments are in Finnish.
The video does not show touchdown but the approach looks very steady, and no boom before the end.

NATO northtrop grumman Q4 globalhawk landing at Tampere-Pirkkala

Right, that looked like landing approach. Moving slow and wheels down. The location Pirkkala is a minor international airport and used to be home for F-18 fighters until 2014.

The posting date would have been the 16th which matches the second flight mentioned in comment #4

Comments loosely translated:

One commenter relates the following day (17th) on seeing a Global Hawk in the sky in Tampere on the previous day (16th). He also witnessed an F-15E, Rafaels flying in wing-to-wing formation a couple of passes and some F-35.

Another commenter queries the filming location asking it it was at 24 and pondering a visit to observe personally and the posted confirmed it was filmed form the gravel parking lot near the landing poles at 24. I am speculating the 24 is a runway or road number.

Another was curious where the drone was controlled from, answer suggested operated from Italy but possibly controlled from elsewhere.

Las question asked if it went to a military hanger/platform (colloquial word) and was answered in the affirmative.


Regards

Kalle
--
Helsinki, Finland

 

[KalleMP]

It wouldn't be a "redirect", it would simply be how the mission was planned originally. This is especially true if the drone squawked 7600, because (see above) that meant the drone operator had lost contact with it, and the drone was now executing its pre-planned mission autonomously (by itself).

My first thought was that loss of contact would make the drone return to an alternate base as the original base was not longer in contact and may be compromised. This would be a possibility. The second track that appeared to follow the same route suggests that it would have done the same even if it had not lost radio contact. However the report of the 16h also mentions the 7600 transponder squawk so it may have also lost comms. I expect the Russians would be testing radio jamming but I expect the drones also have space based comms.

The communication error may simply be a red herring to let the Russians think they achieve something while the drone is really triangulating the source of the jamming. (Total speculation but that is what I would do).

The news speculation suggests a number of these drones are going to potentially be stationed in northern Europe with Finland an option and Pirkkala airport one of the potential sites. Perhaps the drones are making test flights to check out the various locations to see if they are suitable for drone bases. Perhaps the drones are already being transferred to Finland and are making reconnaissance flights in the Black Sea along the way. In future they might fly from Finland to the Blak Sea and back. Also all speculation at the moment.

Regards

Kalle
--
Helsinki, Finland

 

[Mauro]

The first line of the third image looks like MM.AV.SA.001

An RQ-4D with registration number MM-AV-SA001 indeed exists and is based in Sigonella:

Source: https://x.com/ItaMilRadar/status/1539340799082643462


And I found a picture of the RQ-4 in flight here
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hindberg/54581352977

captioned:

So the right RQ4 in the right place on the right date (but no other informations, in particular, does not say if the drone actually landed at Tampere).

So I guess itamilradar reported the wrong date and the wrong registration number, which would explain everything, or it really was a repeating pattern, but in this case not all is clear to me (ie.: both flight squawked code 7600 on the Black Sea? Did both land at Tampere?). I'll send a mail to itamilradar tomorrow and will let you know if they answer me.

 

[KalleMP]

So the right RQ4 in the right place on the right date (but no other informations, in particular, does not say if the drone actually landed at Tampere).

So I guess itamilradar reported the wrong date and the wrong registration number, which would explain everything, or it really was a repeating pattern, but in this case not all is clear to me (ie.: both flight squawked code 7600 on the Black Sea? Did both land at Tampere?). I'll send a mail to itamilradar tomorrow and will let you know if they answer me.

I asked the poster of the YT video for the flight date and they confirmed that it was the 16th. They also replied that they had not personally seen any Global Hawk drones previously.

So MM-AV-SA001 exists, flew on the 11th from Sicily via Black Sea to Tampere, fate unknown, search flights were observed, not known if related, no reports of any crash.

So MM-AV-SA-0017 exists, flew on the 16th from Sicily via Black Sea and landed in Tampere.

Perhaps it becomes a regular thing if they establish a drone base in Finland.
I hope they do not have a weak communications system if both flights did squawk 7600.

Regards

Kalle
--
Helsinki, Finland

 

[Mauro]

I asked the poster of the YT video for the flight date and they confirmed that it was the 16th.

Hmm... which YT video? And he confirmed it was the 16th, or the 11th? I don't understand.

 

[KalleMP]

Hmm... which YT video? And he confirmed it was the 16th, or the 11th? I don't understand.

Your comment #14 has the montage.
The Flicker frame montage is dated the 11th.

Comment #10 by @MapperGuy links to the video in question.
I asked the video poster for the date and he confirmed 16th.

I had a look and Tampere, Pirkkala airport has one runway listed as 06/24 so in this case the number mentioned in the YT comments refers to the direction the drone was landing. A pilot would have known immediately what the number signified. If the number had been 06 the landing would have been from the opposite direction.

The street signpost at the very start of the video also confirms the location.
The signs indicate Lempälä 17km, Pirkkala 6km, Varikontie

The street sign is for Varikontie which passes the terminal building which is Route 303 that connects the two locations with appropriate distances, the intersection with the street signs is at the north east end of the runway. The landing would have been at a heading of 240 degrees almost WSW.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Lempäälä,+37500/61.4222084,23.6306262/Pirkkala/@61.4094339,23.4961645,10.92z/data=!4m15!4m14!1m5!1m1!1s0x468edd420e84fef7:0x400b551554bb5d0!2m2!1d23.7524484!2d61.3141111!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x468ed9a73b930863:0xf7b96fe752c0568e!2m2!1d23.6415166!2d61.4668765!3e0?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDYxNy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw==


Here is the streetview next to the gravel parking lot at the end of the runway looking at the street signs. The runway is most of the way behind on the right on the fenced embankment.

https://www.google.com/maps/@61.422...try=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDYxNy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw==

The flight track of the 11th in mu OP from the original FB post (full size image below) shows the drone making a pass over the runway in the expected 240 WSW heading but not landing, coming around at a 060 heading and the track ends. If my reading is correct after this there was a climb to 15'000ft and loss of transponder and tracking but there are no records of this. The search patterns may have been unrelated or they may have been part of an excersize to see how fast the S&R could react to a lost drone.

Regards

Kalle
--
Helsinki, Finland

 

[KalleMP]

I found another report dated the 12th on a local (Finland) chat platform for the town of Lempälä (15km South from the airport) that links to a Reddit post (I converted the two URLs to links) and to an "X" post that is probably the source of the flight track image from the 11th I repeated above. The title of the "X" post includes a link to globe.theairtraffic.com that was used to capture the flight data but I think the historical tracks have expired as it does not display anything when I tried the URL and I do not know if there is a way to recover older data. The site blurb mentions historical data and 24h is mentioned somewhere else when investigating it but I could not find the buttons to press.

The poster suggests that it may have flown towards Orivesi which is in the general 060 heading direction. The commenter is asking if anyone has seen any search activity. The few comments to the post are not taking the post seriously.

I include here the translated Finnish text from the post
-----
The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk, which had flown from Sicily, was supposed to land at Pirkkala airfield and remain in Finland for the time being.

However, for some reason the landing was not successful, and the plane continued its flight over the airfield. After a few minutes it began to curve south and then east, at which point the plane began to loudly complain about the 7600 code, which means that radio contact has been lost.

The plane's error message has been recorded by the website,
#MAGMA10 is squawking 7600 (Radio Failure), https://globe.theairtraffic.com/?icao=33FD5E&showTrace=2025-06-11&timestamp=1749625049.8 06/11/2025, 06:57:29 Z
and
MAGMA10 is squawking 7600 (Radio Failure), 06/11/2025, 06:57:29 Z
, which monitor emergency messages sent by aircraft.

After sending the distress signal, the plane turns back to its original route to the northeast and follows it until it turns southeast, flies north of Orivesi over the E63 road, and at this point the plane disappears from radar.

Have you seen army units searching on roads and in forests, search planes circling low in the air?
-----

Regards

Kalle
--
Helsinki, Fniland

 

[Mauro]

I have sent this E-mail to itamilradar:

Hello,

I have read your article "A very long day for MAGMA", dated June 18, 2025, where you report about the June 16, 2025 flight of an RQ-4D, with registration number MM-AV-SA0017, first towards Lybia, then the Black Sea, where he squawed code 7600, then to Tampere, Finland, where it landed. You also remark in the article that the landing at Tampere was unusual.

The very next day, on the "Metabunk" forum (an US forum devoted to the debunk of conspiracies, UAP sightings etc.) a member from Finland said in a post that there were rumours about an RQ-4D which squawked code 7600 on the Black Sea and then (so the rumours said) crashed near Tampere, and he asked if anyone had read anything about the story. So I posted on the forum about your article and thought the case was closed.

But, the original poster said the rumours talked about a flight on June 11, not June 16, and the registration number was -SA001, not -SA0017 (he posted screenshots, including a track of -SA001 near Tampere dated June 11).

The simplest explanation which comes to my mind is a typo in your article (June 11 became June 16 and -SA001 became -SA0017). Alternatively, there were two flights (-SA001 on June 11 and -SA0017 on June 16), both of which patrolled the Black Sea before moving of Finland and both of which squawked code 7600.

Can you shed some light on this matter? And, if there were two flights, any idea of why they both squawked code 7600? Did the flight on June 11 landed in Tampere too, or did it go back to Sigonella?

 

[NorCal Dave]

There seems to be one semi-actual news story about the Global Hawk MAGMA10, squawking 7600 over the Black Sea:

A NATO done appeared to have lost communications as it travelled near Russian airspace, sparking fears Moscow's forces may have jammed comms. The NATO RQ-4D Phoenix, callsign MAGMA10, reportedly sent an emergency "squawk" code of 7600 while flying over the Black Sea.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/ne...s-of-russian-jamming/ar-AA1GNM2I?ocid=ARWLCHR

Originally from the Daily Express. There are then multiple X post and Reddit discussions that seem to all be related to this same incident. Any search for a crashed Golbal Hawk drone over Finland just brings up this thread and the Facebook page from the OP. So, 1 Facebook page seems to be the only source for this supposed crash.

Maybe some others know more about these drones. The 7600 code means a loss of 2-way radio communication, so it's an aircraft alerting ATC that it can't communicate over radio. For a Global Hawk, or other military drones, does that equate to a loss of controlling communications with it's remote operator? There's no pilot in the drone, so who's using the 2 way radio? Does the remote operator communicate via the drone with ATC? Does the operator use 2-way radio to control the drone? I don't know.

Is it possible that some of these drones squawk 7600 somewhat regularly but this time someone noticed it happened over the Black Sea, speculated it was Russian jamming and it became a story?

 

[MapperGuy]

There seems to be one semi-actual news story about the Global Hawk MAGMA10, squawking 7600 over the Black Sea:

A NATO done appeared to have lost communications as it travelled near Russian airspace, sparking fears Moscow's forces may have jammed comms. The NATO RQ-4D Phoenix, callsign MAGMA10, reportedly sent an emergency "squawk" code of 7600 while flying over the Black Sea.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/ne...s-of-russian-jamming/ar-AA1GNM2I?ocid=ARWLCHR

Originally from the Daily Express. There are then multiple X post and Reddit discussions that seem to all be related to this same incident. Any search for a crashed Golbal Hawk drone over Finland just brings up this thread and the Facebook page from the OP. So, 1 Facebook page seems to be the only source for this supposed crash.

Maybe some others know more about these drones. The 7600 code means a loss of 2-way radio communication, so it's an aircraft alerting ATC that it can't communicate over radio. For a Global Hawk, or other military drones, does that equate to a loss of controlling communications with it's remote operator? There's no pilot in the drone, so who's using the 2 way radio? Does the remote operator communicate via the drone with ATC? Does the operator use 2-way radio to control the drone? I don't know.

Is it possible that some of these drones squawk 7600 somewhat regularly but this time someone noticed it happened over the Black Sea, speculated it was Russian jamming and it became a story?

Global Hawks do have a satellite communication capability. The bulge above the front of the fuselage houses a satellite dish, for sending data back to controllers. I would assume they can also fly it by that data-link.

Global Hawks are intended to be largely autonomous. Tell it to fly a particular flight path and it can do it without further input, and probably land itself if the airfield has the right instrument landing systems installed.

I would also expect any Global Hawk loss would hit the news media very quickly, as it would immediately spawn a massive search/recovery effort.

USAF Global Hawk brief from FAA

 

[Mendel]

The 7600 code means a loss of 2-way radio communication, so it's an aircraft alerting ATC that it can't communicate over radio. For a Global Hawk, or other military drones, does that equate to a loss of controlling communications with it's remote operator?

Yes. See https://www.metabunk.org/threads/lost-drone-over-finland.14292/post-347260 .

When the satellite link is working, mission control can use the onboard VHF radio to talk to air traffic control.

 

[NorCal Dave]

I would also expect any Global Hawk loss would hit the news media very quickly, as it would immediately spawn a massive search/recovery effort.

Yeah, the first hit when looking for "Global Hawk crash in Finland" is from a 2017 crash in SoCal. Nothing about Finland.


Source: https://youtu.be/6SkuKywpB0w?si=7Cj2-EsugrGgnpYd