Brussels Airport operations disrupted due to drones

Air traffic at Brussels Airport has been disrupted in recent days due to sightings of drones in the area.

At least 40 flights were cancelled and others were delayed after the Belgian airspace was closed for safety reasons following the sightings, leaving about several hundred passengers stranded at the airport.

Planes were diverted to Ostend, Charleroi, Lille, Schiphol or other airports on Tuesday, meaning the disruption continued into Wednesday because those aircraft were not immediately available for flights out of Brussels.

The first drone sightings occurred shortly before 20.00 on Tuesday, prompting the closure of the airspace. Air traffic then resumed but was halted again around 22.00 after more drones were spotted.

“When a drone is spotted, the standard procedure is to suspend flights for at least 30 minutes to carry out the necessary checks and ensure that there are no more unwanted flights,” said Belgian airspace manager Skeyes.

There were also reports of drones at Liège Airport and the Florennes airbase in Namur.

All sightings are currently under investigation and Skeyes said there was no evidence at this time that they were related.

“We will not allow our airports to be disrupted by uncontrolled drone flights,” said interior minister Bernard Quintin (MR).

“This calls for a coordinated and national response. The services must carry out a thorough analysis to ensure that we have all the information we need to make the right decisions.”

The minister emphasised that the safety of travellers and staff is an absolute priority and that the federal police and defence ministry are monitoring the situation closely.

The National Security Council will meet on Thursday to discuss the incident. Directors and heads of security and intelligence services may also join the discussion.

According to Quintin, the most important thing is that all flying objects can be recognised and therefore measures surrounding drone registration need to be tightened.

“We must be sure that we have the appropriate systems for detection and identification,” he said, noting that while all drones must be registered in Belgium, many users are unaware of this or simply ignore it.

Former defence minister Ludivine Dedonder (PS) rejected criticism from current defence minister Theo Francken (N-VA) that too little was done in the past to anticipate the threat of drones.

“We have allocated resources for this purpose and invested in a real cyberforce,” Dedonder said in an interview with RTBF.

The former minister acknowledged that the overflight of drones is “worrying” and that this threat was much less real during her tenure, but said “studies were under way into different ways of securing our airports” and she now expects an “ambitious plan” from the ministers of defence and the interior.