At least one drone entered Finland, the Finnish Ministry of the Interior confirmed, Helsinki Airport suspended operations, a number of flights were canceled or rescheduled due to the temporary closure of airspace, fighter jets were scrambled, and Latvia also issued an alert due to drones, Yle reports, according to UNN.
Details
Early in the morning on May 15, the Defense Forces received reports of drones that could have entered Finland. The suspected area is between Helsinki and Porvoo.
Finnish Air Force Hornet fighter jets flew early Friday morning over Uusimaa and off the coast of Helsinki.
According to the police, drone sightings were recorded in southern Finland. Authorities received reports of unmanned aerial vehicles in Finnish airspace throughout the morning, the statement said.
In the morning, authorities issued a danger warning urging residents of Uusimaa to stay indoors and keep away from windows.
Helsinki authorities held a meeting at 6:30 local time regarding the operation of city services today. At 7:06, authorities announced that the drone threat in Uusimaa had passed.
"The danger has passed, and residents can return to their normal lives: it is safe to go to work and school," stated the country's Minister of the Interior, Mari Rantanen.
At 8:15, Kimmo Kohvakka, head of the rescue services at the Ministry of the Interior, told the STT news agency that, according to available data, at least one drone had entered Finland.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo thanked the authorities for their actions during the drone threat.
A fighter jet and a helicopter flew, in particular, over the capital's Pasila district.
Helsinki city services are operating normally today, City Communications Director Liisa Kivelä reported around 7:30.
"Everything is proceeding as usual since the dangerous situation has passed," she noted.
Had the authorities' call to stay indoors continued, schools would have been closed. The operation of critical services would have been assessed separately depending on the situation and instructions from the authorities.
The city is closely following the recommendations of the Ministry of the Interior and other agencies, Kivelä stated.
Helsinki Regional Transport (HSL) continued operations despite the possible drone threat in Uusimaa. Some bus routes were canceled, but traffic did not stop completely, the HSL duty service reported. The metro is currently running.
Due to the drone threat, air traffic at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport was suspended in the morning. Several morning flights were canceled or rescheduled due to the temporary closure of airspace.
In particular, a direct flight to Berlin was reportedly rescheduled from 7:05 to 13:45 with a layover in Tallinn.
Flights to Helsinki-Vantaa were diverted to other airports in the morning. Of two morning planes from Tokyo, one was diverted to Stockholm, the other to Rovaniemi. A flight from Osaka also landed there. Rovaniemi serves as an alternate airport for transpolar flights—they enter Finnish airspace via Lapland. Flights from Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaga were diverted to Stockholm.
At approximately 7 o'clock, the airspace over Uusimaa reopened.
Latvia also issued an alert due to drones
During the night, Latvia issued a warning about a possible threat to its airspace, reports Delfi.lv.
The alert was in effect from 1:43 to 6:37. The warning concerned four municipalities on the border with Russia and Belarus.
The Latvian Air Force monitored the airspace. There is no information about drones or other foreign objects as of yet.