Use of Southern Finland airspace limited by mysterious exercise

Remotely piloted aircraft seen at Kiikala airfield

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A secretive joint “exercise” by the police and the Defence Forces caused surprise restrictions to the use of the Southern Finland airspace over the weekend.
      The organisers of the drill also took command of the small Kiikala airstrip, northeast of the city of Salo. All aviation activities are banned in Kiikala until Thursday.
      Furthermore, there are restrictions on the use of the airspace between Helsinki and Turku for the next two weeks. The Finnish Civil Aviation Authority agreed to the airspace restrictions without even knowing that what was taking place was a mere drill.
      “The exercise forms a part of larger security arrangements, in connection of which it is imperative to have the sole use of the airspace in question”, says Chief Inspector Heikki Porola of the Helsinki Police Department.
     
The operation differs completely from any standard procedure put into effect when the use of airspace is limited, for example in connection with Finnish Air Force exercises.
      Normally advance information regarding any drills is sent well beforehand, the restrictions are agreed on with the airspace users, and they are made known to all pilots through the aviation notification system.
      This time, however, the standard procedure was ignored. On Friday evening Chief Inspector Porola sent an executive assistance request to the Finnish Civil Aviation Authority, asking to mark off almost the entire airspace between Helsinki and Turku for possible restrictions to be announced later.
     
No reason was given for the request, but the Aviation Authority adhered to it nonetheless. The restrictions were implemented by Finavia, a state owned commercial enterprise in charge of Finland’s air navigation services.
      The restrictions applied primarily to amateur aviation. In Räyskälä the participants of the Finnish Gliding Championships were told not to fly south of Somero on the last day of the competition. In Nummela even tighter than normal altitude restrictions were implemented.
     
Finavia Director of Operations (Air Navigation Department) Raine Luojus is not worried about this, for he only considers heavy air traffic and the Air Force as users of airspace.
      The former did not suffer from the restrictions and the latter was one of their instigators.
      While the police were running their drills, the Defence Forces took over the Kiikala landing strip with help from the police without any prior notice and closed it off from civil users.
      According to the regular users of the airstrip, remotely-piloted unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) normally stationed in Niinisalo have been seen there.
      All civilian visitors to the Kiikala airfield are accompanied by military escorts, and even the civilian planes based there are currently not allowed to be removed from the area.


Links:
  Unmanned Aerial Vehicle - UAV (Wikipedia)

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