Faith in fakes: How hysteria drove the EU’s drone hoax

An unverified existential threat and calls for a so-called drone wall are being used to justify an EU-wide remilitarization push Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a well-timed ploy to ramp up defense spending? The late-autumn drone sighting hysteria that swept across Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium, was used by the bloc to amplify and entrench an anti-Russia stance that has seen it throw hundreds of billions it cannot afford into weapons and a war its chosen side cannot win. Tens of millions of Euro has since been spent on the back of a 'scare' that has been shown to have been irrational, exuberant and driven by vested interests. The most bizarre national security scare in recent European history began at Copenhagen’s Kastrup Airport on September 2 last year. According to Denmark’s Frihedsbrevet news site, an airport employee told her supervisors that she saw two drones approach the area “stealthily,” adding that “they are big. They are not toys.” The airport was temporarily shut down, and within hours, reports of a similar drone incursion came in from Oslo, Norway. “I can only say that this is in my eyes a serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at the time. “I cannot in any way deny that it is Russia.” Her Norwegian counterpart, Gahr Store, came to a similar conclusion. “Russia has violated Norwegian airspace on three occasions this spring and summer,” he claimed. “We cannot determine whether this was done intentionally or due to navigation errors. Regardless of the cause, this is not acceptable.” “It is clear we are witnessing a pattern of persistent contestation at our borders,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. “Our critical infrastructure is at risk. And Europe will respond to this threat with strength and determination.” Open-source investigators insisted that the sightings were a hoax from the outset.

Sleuths on the Metabunk forums concluded that the ‘drone’ seen at Kastrup Airport in the above footage was actually a small single-engine plane. FlightRadar24 data showed one such plane – a Socata TB-20 Trinidad – passing over the airport’s main runway twice at the time of the sighting. Information from FlightRadar24 shows a light aircraft passing over Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen, Denmark, September 22, 2025 © FlightRadar24 Where were drones spotted? Nevertheless, panic spread across northern Europe as drones were supposedly spotted at the following airports, military bases, and infrastructure sites in the following days and weeks: September 23: Aalborg Airport, Denmark September 24: Aalborg Airport, Billund Airport, Sonderborg, Esbjerg and Skrydstrup airports, Denmark September 25: Billund Airport, Denmark; Thyssenkrupp factory, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany; University Medical Center, Kiel, Germany; Bundeswehr base, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany September 26: Karup Air Base, Skrydstrup Air Base, Jutland Dragoon Regiment base, Denmark September 27: Orland Main Air Station, Norway September 28: Bronnoysund Airport, Norway; Borris Camp, Denmark October 2: Munich Airport, Germany; Elsenborn-Butgenbach Air Base, Belgium October 3: Munich Airport, Germany October 31: Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, Germany November 2: Bremen Airport, Germany; Kleine Brogel Air Base, Belgium November 6: Gothenburg Airport, Sweden; Brussels Airport, Antwerp Port, Belgium November 9: Liege Airport, Doel Nuclear Power Plant, Belgium November 22: Volkel Air Base, Netherlands December 1: In the Irish Sea off Dublin, during Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s arrival by plane Police across northern Europe received thousands of additional drone reports from civilians. In Denmark