Belgium on alert: National Security Council to meet after drone incursions at airports and military bases

Brussels – After Oslo and Copenhagen, Brussels too became the scene of drone incursions that caused significant disruption to air traffic yesterday evening (November 4). At Zaventem airport in the Belgian capital, over 50 flights were cancelled and 24 were diverted to other national airports or to the Netherlands. Also at Liège airport, several flights were cancelled or delayed. Tomorrow, the National Safety Council will meet to discuss the safety of Belgian airspace. 

The area above the Brussels airport was closed for the first time shortly before 20:00, following the sighting of drones. Shortly afterwards, Liège airport also suspended all air traffic as a precaution. The authorities responsible for the Belgian skies tried to reopen traffic an hour later, around 21:00, but a new drone report paralysed the two airports again. The airspace of the two airports was finally reopened around 23:30. A similar incident on September 23  had left more than 50 aircraft grounded at Oslo and Copenhagen airports.

“When a drone is spotted, the standard procedure is to interrupt flights for at least 30 minutes, the time needed to carry out the appropriate checks and make sure there are no more unwanted overflights. That is what happened in this case,” explained Skeyes, the body that controls Belgium’s airspace.

 In parallel, several small drones also flew over some Belgian military bases – as had already happened a few days ago. Around 22:45, four unmanned aircraft were spotted over the Schaffen base in Diest and at least two in the vicinity of the Kleine-Brogel military airbase in Peer. At the latter – Belgium’s largest – on November 3, the armed forces attempted to disable a drone by emitting electromagnetic waves, but without success.  This morning, Interior Minister Bernard Quintin called for the convening of the National Security Council, which brings together the Prime Minister, his deputies, and the heads of the Justice, Defence, Interior, and Foreign Affairs ministries. Prime Minister Bart de Wever convened the Security Council, which will meet tomorrow at 10:00. 

Defence Minister Theo Francken stated that the intrusions were not the work of “mere amateurs,” but that it is “a more serious problem.” “We must react quickly,” he said. At the European level, the ‘anti-drone wall’, a system of integrated sensors and reconnaissance tools of over thousands of kilometres to guard the eastern flank from drone incursions supposedly part of a hybrid warfare strategy orchestrated by Russia, has been on the agenda for weeks. According to the European Defence Commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, European drones should have “detection, interception, and impact capability.” On the eastern flank, but also in Brussels, in the heart of Europe and home of the European institutions.