Brussels
Reuters
—
Belgium’s Brussels and Liège airports were closed on Tuesday night following drone sightings, causing many incoming planes to be diverted and other airports to be prevented from taking off.
Kurt Verwilligen, a spokesman for the Belgian Air Traffic Control Authority, said the drone was spotted near Brussels airport just before 8pm local time (2pm ET) and was subsequently closed as a security measure.
Belgium’s busiest airport briefly reopened after two hours of chaos, but was shut down again after more drone sightings. It is unclear when flights will resume.
National airline Brussels Airlines announced that 15 outbound flights were unable to take off and eight return flights were diverted to other airports.
Liege Airport, which is primarily used as a cargo hub, was also closed due to drone sightings, an airport spokesperson said.
The incident comes after drones were spotted over the weekend over a Belgian military air base.
Defense Minister Theo Franken told public broadcaster RTBF that Tuesday’s incident appeared to have been carried out by experts intent on destabilizing the country.
Drones have caused havoc across Europe in recent months.
In September, Copenhagen Airport was closed for four hours and Oslo Airport was closed for three hours after a drone sighting.
There were also suspected Russian drone intrusions into the airspace of Poland and Romania.
