Flights to Belgian airports diverted to Schiphol, Maastricht over drone activity

Several flights to Belgium were diverted to Schiphol Airport and Maastricht Aachen Airport on Tuesday evening because they couldn’t land at two Belgian airports. The airports in Brussels and Liège were closed for several hours due to drone activity in the area.

A spokesperson for the Maastricht Aachen Airport told ANP that at least four flights were diverted to them and at least two to Schiphol. According to NOS, Belgian flights also landed at Eindhoven Airport.

Notices in the departure hall of Brussels Airport informed travelers that air traffic is “temporarily disrupted due to an exceptional situation” and incoming flights were being diverted. Drones have regularly been sighted over Belgian airfields in recent days.

The Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken was a guest on a live talk show on Belgian television when the drones appeared. He was called off due to the drones and later briefly returned to explain that the airspace near Brussels had been closed because drones could endanger civil aviation. He then left, saying that his “place isn’t here right now,” according to the Belgian newspaper De Morgen.

Last month, the caretaker Dutch Defense Minister, Ruben Brekelmans, called recent drone sightings in Belgium a “worrying pattern.” Foreign Affairs Minister David van Weel urged vigilance. “Drones are available everywhere, in all shapes and sizes,” he said. “It is therefore very easy, in the context of broad warfare, to release a few of them somewhere and disrupt air traffic.”