Reports of drone sightings led to air traffic disruptions on Thursday night and Friday morning at the airport in the Belgian capital Brussels and at Bierset airport near the city of Liège. Operations at both airports have been resumed in the meantime, TASR informs, according to a report by the Belga agency.
Thursday’s incident is the second in a week that air traffic at Brussels airport had to be suspended due to a drone sighting. Similar incidents have occurred elsewhere in Europe, including Copenhagen, Oslo, Aalborg and Munich. Flights were suspended as a precaution at the airport in the Belgian capital on Thursday at around 21:20 after a report of a dronereports Belga, referring to one of the speakers.
Interruption of operations in such a case is standard procedure, explained the Belgian provider of air navigation and operational services for civil airspace Skeyes. Eight departures and 22 arrivals were scheduled at the Brussels airport at the time of the interruption of operations.
At Bierset airport near the city of Liège, air traffic was also suspended from 22:00 to 23:20 due to the sighting of a drone. In this case too, a standard procedure was implemented, writes Belga. Due to the presence of a drone, traffic at Liège airport was also interrupted on Friday morning shortly after 7:00 a.m. The suspension of flights lasted for about an hour.
Belgium called an emergency meeting of its security council on Thursday about the threats posed by recent drone sightings over military facilities in the country and over the airport in Brussels.
Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken said before the meeting that he wants to put the national airspace security center into operation as soon as possible and increase the country’s defense capabilities against drones. The drone was reportedly spotted near FedEx facilities at the airport. At the same time, it was the first observation of a drone in daylight.
