Drone over Brønnøysund Airport (Norway)

On the evening of Tuesday, 30 September 2025, police in Nordland received a report at 20:17 local time of one or more drones flying near Brønnøysund Airport (Brønnøysund lufthavn), close enough that air traffic control staff in the tower could see them. Around 21:50, tower personnel visually observed a drone in the air near the airfield. According to Nordland Police District, officers searched the area but were unable to find the drone or its operator. As an operations leader put it, police had observation of the drone in the air, but were unable to locate any pilot connected to it. The drone reportedly moved off quickly, with the tower's last report indicating it heading northeast.

Avinor and the airline Widerøe confirmed the airport remained operational; the last scheduled flight of the evening landed as planned, after which the airport closed for the night and was expected to resume normal operations the following morning. The sighting was the second near the airport within days: on Sunday, 28 September, a drone observation inside the airport's restricted no-fly zone led a Widerøe flight to divert. Drone observations within these zones are illegal under Norwegian law, and police treated the matter as a criminal case. The incident formed part of a wider series of drone sightings reported across Norwegian airports, military sites and infrastructure in late September 2025.

Attribution is unknown and the case was treated as under investigation; no perpetrator or motive has been established, and no state has been credibly implicated for this specific sighting. The episode coincided with a broader late-September 2025 wave of drone sightings near Nordic airports and airbases, including earlier closures at Oslo and Copenhagen, prompting concern about possible coordinated activity. That context is suggestive but not conclusive: Norwegian police later shelved the parallel Oslo Airport investigation, unable even to confirm drones were present, and authorities cautioned that many reported sightings could not be verified. Operational impact at Brønnøysund was limited.