Belgium’s air traffic was severely disrupted after drone sightings forced two major airports to temporarily suspend operations as a security precaution.
A drone was first spotted near Brussels airport at 8pm (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday evening, followed by another incident at the nearby Liege airport, one of Europe’s largest cargo airports, according to Belgium’s public broadcaster RTBF.
Both airports suspended operations for an hour and reopened at 9pm (20:00 GMT), only to shut down again at 10pm (21:00 GMT) after a second sighting, RTBF said. Both airports resumed normal operations at 11pm (22:00 GMT).
Brussels airport said that the shutdowns may still impact air traffic on Wednesday in a notice on its website.
“Following drone sightings on Tuesday evening, flight operations at Brussels Airport were suspended for safety reasons,” the notice said. “This disruption has led to delays and some flight cancellations and might still impact flight operations on Wednesday morning.”
Flight Aware, a US-based flight tracking website, counted 59 cancelled and 43 delayed flights at Brussels airport on Tuesday. Some flights were also diverted to nearby airports, according to RTBF.
Authorities have not released limited information about the drone sightings, but Minister of the Interior Bernard Quintin said that an investigation was under way, according to RTBF.
“We cannot accept that our airports are disrupted by unauthorised drone flights. This requires a coordinated, national response,” he said.
The drone sightings in Brussels and Liege follow a similar incident on Saturday, when three unauthorised drones were spotted near a Belgian military base, according to Minister of Defence Theo Francken.
Francken said on X that he believed the incident was “not a simple flyover, but a clear command targeting [the] Kleine Brogel” airbase in northwest Belgium.
He said the drones were flying at a high altitude and could not be stopped with a drone jammer. They also evaded pursuit by a helicopter and police vehicle, he said.
Since September, Europe has been hit with a wave of mysterious drone sightings near civilian airports and military facilities in Denmark, Germany, and Norway.
Denmark’s intelligence service has linked the drone flights to Russia, and described them as a form of hybrid warfare intended to “put pressure on [Europe] without crossing the line into armed conflict in a traditional sense”, according to Reuters.
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