Belgium has called an emergency meeting of key government ministers and security chiefs after further drone sightings forced closures of airports and a military air base in what the defence minister called a co-ordinated attack.
The main airport in Brussels and another in Liege had to suspend arrivals yesterday and departures late on November 4 for several hours after suspected drones were spotted nearby, according to AFP.
Bernard Quintin, the minister of the interior, asked Prime Minister Bart De Wever to convene the National Security Council today in response to the sightings.
Dozens of passenger and cargo flights were cancelled.
At around the same time, drones were spotted over the airports in Antwerp, Liege and Ostend, forcing them to shut as well until the early hours of yesterday morning.
Drones were also seen above the Florennes air base, according to the defence ministry.
Brussels Airport had briefly reopened after two hours but then was closed again after at least one drone reappeared. The suspension of flights ended at about 2am, Reuters reported.
Defence minister Theo Francken told a parliamentary committee later yesterday the incidents appeared to be co-ordinated to foment disruption, involving large drones flying in formation, according to AFP.
“It is in line with the hybrid techniques seen in other countries. This is not just someone who flies a drone by chance over a military site or airport.
“There are a number of indications that this was organised in a very structured way.”
Quintin said on X yesterday: “The recurrence of drone-related incidents directly affects the security of our country.”
“We must act in a calm, serious and co-ordinated manner.”
Brussels Airport said 81 flights had been cancelled since the initial closure, along with 24 diverted. Almost half the cancellations occurred after the airport was reopened yesterday morning because many planes were in the wrong locations.
Some 400-500 passengers had to spend the night at Brussels Airport because of the sightings, airport spokeswoman Ariane Goossens said.
The first departure was around 6.30am yesterday.
Liege Airport, a major cargo hub, reopened at 3am, nearly seven hours after it was shut, with five flights cancelled, 37 delayed and eight diverted to other airports, according to Reuters.
A spokesman for Liege airport said the incidents were “worrying for national security”.
Authorities in Denmark, Norway and Germany are investigating drone sightings that have temporarily grounded air traffic at the Oslo, Copenhagen and Munich airports since September, although so far few details have been publicly disclosed about what actually transpired in those cases.
Suspicions have swirled over potential Russian involvement in increased drone activity across Europe, with tension high as the war in Ukraine drags through its fourth year.
Dutch authorities yesterday evening received several reports of a possible drone near a military barracks in Heverlee, east of Brussels, but local police could not confirm if the device had been a drone, a spokesperson said.
Flemish media outlet HLN also reported more drone sightings near the Kleine-Brogel military base on the evening of November 4 but that was not confirmed by authorities either.
Francken earlier refused to point the finger at Russia for the weekend sightings near the base but said that they appeared to be a co-ordinated operation carried out by “professionals”.
“They are trying to sow panic in Belgium,” Francken told local media.
“This is destabilisation.”
