Belgium’s Brussels and Liège airports were forced to close twice on Tuesday after mysterious drone sightings.
Published November 5, 2025
Air traffic in Belgium has been severely disrupted after drone sightings forced two major airports to temporarily suspend operations as a safety precaution.
According to Belgian public broadcaster RTBF, the drone was first spotted near Brussels Airport at 8pm (7pm GMT) on Tuesday night, followed by another incident at nearby Liège Airport, one of Europe’s largest cargo airports.
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RTBF said both airports were closed for an hour and reopened at 9pm (20:00 GMT), but were closed again at 10:00pm (21:00 GMT) following the second sighting. Both airports resumed normal operations at 11:00 pm (22:00 GMT).
Brussels Airport said in a notice on its website that the closure could affect air traffic well into Wednesday.
“Following the sighting of a drone on Tuesday night, flight operations at Brussels Airport have been suspended for security reasons,” the notice said. “This disruption has resulted in delays and some flight cancellations, and may affect service on Wednesday morning.”
Flight Aware, a US-based flight tracking website, counted 59 canceled flights and 43 delayed flights at Brussels Airport on Tuesday. Some flights were diverted to nearby airports, RTBF said.
According to RTBF, authorities have not released limited information about the drone sightings, but Interior Minister Bernard Quintin said an investigation was ongoing.
“We cannot accept that our airports will be disrupted by unauthorized drone flights. This requires a coordinated national response,” he said.
According to Defense Minister Theo Franken, the drone sightings in Brussels and Liège follow a similar incident in which three unauthorized drones were spotted near a Belgian military base on Saturday.
Franken told X that he believed the incident was “not just a high-flying flight, but a clear directive targeting the Kleine Brogel air base in northwest Belgium.”
He said the drone was flying at a high altitude and the drone jammer could not have stopped it. He reportedly escaped being chased by helicopters and police vehicles.
Since September, there have been a number of reports of mysterious drone sightings in Europe near civilian airports and military facilities in Denmark, Germany and Norway.
According to Reuters, Danish intelligence linked the drone flights to Russia, saying it was a form of hybrid warfare aimed at “putting pressure on[Europe]without crossing the line into armed conflict in the traditional sense.”
