The incident prompted a temporary closure of Tromsø Airport.
“The flight from Oslo to Bardufoss was forced to turn back due to the detection of a drone,” the airlines’ spokesperson said, providing no further details.
According to Flightradar, the flight turned back around at 8:47 p.m. local time, while another plane departed the airport shortly after, at 9:15 p.m.
The incident follows a series of similar drone sightings over civilian and military facilities in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark in recent days.
Earlier, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said that Russia had violated Norwegian airspace three times in 2025, once in the spring and twice in the summer.
Late on Sept. 22, unidentified drones disrupted operations for several hours at airports in Copenhagen and Oslo.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called the incident “a serious attack on Denmark’s critical infrastructure” and said she could not rule out Russian involvement.
In the early hours of Sept. 25, drones were spotted again over Denmark, this time flying near military sites. One was seen near Aalborg Airport, home to an air base that hosts C-130 Hercules and CL-604 Challenger transport aircraft. The elite Jægerkorps special forces unit is also based there. Another drone was detected near Skrydstrup Air Base, which supports Denmark’s F-16 fighter jets.
Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen described the drone incursions as “a hybrid attack.”