Belgian airports disrupted by unidentified drone flights

Following drone sightings that forced two major airports to temporarily suspend operations as a security precaution, Belgium’s air traffic was severely impacted.

According to Belgium’s public broadcaster RTBF, a drone was first discovered close to Brussels airport on Tuesday evening at 8 p.m. (12:00 GMT), followed by another incident at the nearby Liege airport, one of Europe’s largest cargo airports.

Both airports halted operations for an hour before reopening at 9 p.m. (20 GMT), which RTBF reported was to close at 10 p.m. (21:00 GMT) after a second sighting. At 11 p.m. (22:00 GMT), both airports resumed normal operations.

In a notice posted on the airport’s website, Brussels Airport stated that the shutdowns may still have an impact on Wednesday’s air traffic.

Flight operations at Brussels Airport were suspended for safety reasons, according to the notice. This disruption has caused delays and some flight cancellations, and it may still have an impact on Wednesday morning flight operations.

On Tuesday, Flight Aware, a website for tracking flights from the US, tallied 59 cancelled and 43 delayed flights to Brussels airport. According to RTBF, some flights were also diverted to nearby airports.

Although the government has not provided specific details about the drone sightings, RTBF reported that an investigation was being conducted. Minister of Interior Bernard Quintin said that.

“We cannot tolerate the disruption of our airports by unlicensed drone flights. He argued that a coordinated, national response is required for this.

According to Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken, the drone sightings come after a similar incident on Saturday when three unlicensed drones were spotted close to a Belgian military base.

Francken claimed on X that the incident was “a clear command targeting]the Kleine Brogel” airbase in northwest Belgium.

He claimed a drone jammer couldn’t stop the drones because they were high-altitude aircraft. He claimed that they avoided police car and helicopter pursuit.

A flurry of enigmatic drone sightings have been reported near military installations and civilian airports in Denmark, Germany, and Norway since September.