Norwegian police arrested a Russian man after he was caught flying a drone above an airport in northern Norway, the police said Saturday, the second such incident in the past week.
The 51-year-old man was arrested Friday morning after he was found to have flown a drone at the Tromso Airport, police said. They seized a “large” amount of photography equipment, including the drone and memory cards.
In their review of the seized equipment, police found photos of the airport in Kirkenes, a Norwegian town near the Russian border, and of a Norwegian military helicopter.
The man, who was not identified, faces charges of flying a drone in Norway, the police said. In February, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Norway’s Civil Aviation Authority banned Russians from flying or operating aircraft — including drones — in Norway. The law prohibits Russian-registered and Russian-operated aircraft from landing in, taking off from or flying over Norway.
The man does not live in Norway, police said, and entered the country Thursday through Storskog on Norway’s northern coast, near Russia. Police said he was heading to Svalbard, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean that is part of Norway, though Russia has some rights to the natural resources in the area, and there are Russian settlements on Svalbard.
Another Russian man was arrested last week after customs officers found two drones in his luggage at the border.