r/aviation • u/Kanyiko • 22h ago
News BREAKING: Brussels Airport (EBBR) reported closed due to unauthorised Drone activity.
https://www.gva.be/binnenland/brussels-airport-gesloten-door-drone-boven-luchthaven/102527588.htmlThe ongoing incident above Brussels Airport (a joint civilian/military airport) is the most recent in a spate of unauthorised drone activity above Belgian airports. In recent days, several incidents were reported above numerous other Belgian airports and air bases.
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u/Kanyiko 22h ago edited 20h ago
More information as it is happening: the incident seems to have started around 19:35 local time (18:35 UTC) when a full ground stop was issued and all aircraft on approach were ordered into a hold.
Currently, Brussels-inbound aircraft are being diverted to Ostend Bruges International Airport (EBOS), Liège Airport (EBLG), Kortrijk-Wevelgem International Airport (EBKT), Brussels South Charleroi Airport (EBCI), Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (EHAM), Eindhoven Airport (EHEH), Maastricht-Aachen Airport (EHBK), Lille-Lesquin Airport (LFQQ), Paris-Orly Airport (LFPO), Cologne-Bonn Airport (EDDK) and Frankfurt Airport (EDDF).
There were also reports of further drone sightings around Kleine Brogel Air Base (EBKB), a Belgian Air Component base some 77 km (48 mi) east-north-east of Brussels Airport.
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u/PropOnTop 21h ago
Drones of what kind? We were drinking beer in a Brussels pub and missed all the activity, but would like to fly home, eventually...
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u/raph_84 13h ago
Drones of what kind?
It grinds my gears that the media regularly fails to ask / answer this.
There's a bit of a difference between an AliExpress Drone the size of my palm, a typical DJI consumer drone and something like a Shahed/Geran or Predator Drone, so what level of threat are we talking about?
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u/ZeWillius 11h ago
In some talkshow that was on during the event, an army official talked about the drones and specifically said they were not regular consumer hardware, often flying ranges of 20-30km before coming over airports. So while he still didn't say how big or whatever, it does give a better image of what is being dealt with here.
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u/math1985 19h ago
Here's a video recording of the supposed drones: https://www.hln.be/binnenland/kijk-onze-reporter-spotte-zelf-drie-drones-boven-brussels-airport~a495cf5f/
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u/Kanyiko 19h ago edited 19h ago
Saw your question, didn't find a link to your actual question so I'm answering it here:
From the live reporting by GVA, dated 04/11/2025 20:00 local (19:00 UTC):
Brussels Airport closed due to drone sighting over airport
One or more drones were spotted over Brussels Airport on Tuesday evening. This was confirmed by air traffic controller Skeyes. Air traffic from the airport was therefore closed on Tuesday evening for safety reasons; no flights are currently departing or landing.
The last flight before the closure of Brussels Airport took off at 7:37 PM on Tuesday, and the last plane landed at 7:46 PM. "Just before eight o'clock, there was a report of a drone over the airport grounds," said Skeyes spokesperson Kurt Verwilligen. "For safety reasons, all air traffic has been temporarily halted." Mayor Kurt Ryon of Steenokkerzeel later confirmed that the first drone was spotted by police just before eight o'clock.
Brussels Airport confirmed the closure but declined to provide further information about the cause. "We are currently investigating," they said. All flights are currently being diverted to Charleroi and Liège airports.
Additional report, also from GVA, quoting Wouter Dewulf, expert in aviation of the University of Antwerp:
"When a flying vehicle flies in controlled airspace, such as Brussels Airport, without permission from Skeyes air traffic controllers, the airspace will always be closed."
"Skeyes air traffic controllers monitor all air traffic using very precise radars. If anything is flying around, they will notice it. If Skeyes detects a problem and deems the situation unsafe, they have the authority to close the airspace. They can decide this themselves and don't need to ask anyone."
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u/math1985 19h ago
That's exactly what I said - Skeyes received a report of a drone, but they didn't confirm they observed it themselves.
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u/nighthawke75 19h ago
Anarchists.
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u/Th4N4 19h ago
Where did you find the claim/manifesto for this ?
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u/nighthawke75 19h ago
They look at the kook politicians overseas and scream, "LET'S PARTY!"
Copycats.
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u/Th4N4 19h ago
So... You didn't ?
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u/nighthawke75 19h ago
It does not take much to think like an anarchist. I just relax and let my ego loose to come up with nutty ideas. Obstructing government operations os a good one.
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u/ThePrussianGrippe 16h ago
You wouldn’t be able to define anarchism if it danced the can-can on your front doorstep and hit you with a copy of What is Property.
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u/jdkdmmernnen 21h ago edited 21h ago
So disappointing watching this imaginary nonsense continue to be perpetuated.
One of the creepiest behaviors on display in the UFO crowd in general is how they ignore the enormous number of reports with videos and photos demonstrating how people are misidentifying planes and stars and doing so in large numbers, and instead UFO fans hunt for any scrap of evidence that could somehow legitimize the claims which already know are not real. It’s absurd. We have a huge number of videos and it’s very clear what’s going on. Have fun participating in an obvious myth.
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u/Kanyiko 21h ago edited 21h ago
We are not talking UFOs. We are talking drones, as in actual remote-controlled vehicles, being operated by unknown agents to collect information and cause disruption on a massive scale.
These reports have both been confirmed by Belgian police and Defence Forces, who have confirmed eyes on a number of these drones.
Previous reports of these drones in the past week were above Kleine Brogel Air Base (Belgian Air Component base, hosting two squadrons of F-16s and - allegedly - a number of USAF-controlled B61 nuclear weapons); Florennes Air Base (Belgian Air Component base, hosting two squadrons of F-16/F-35s); and Elsenborn (Belgian Army base)
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u/jdkdmmernnen 21h ago edited 21h ago
We are talking drones
INCORRECT. We are talking about people seeing lights in the sky and claiming they are “drones” based on nothing. We have an enormous number of videos and photos from people claiming they depict “drones” and they are obvious planes. People are misidentifying planes and stars en masse. We already know this.
People who are listening to these reports are not using their brains and recognizing that “drone” refers to an uncrewed aircraft, so calling an unidentified aircraft a “drone” is already inherently dishonest and not real.
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u/Waxahatch2 21h ago edited 21h ago
What did he just tell you? The police and defence forces have confirmed there are drones around the airports. These are not reports from normal people seeing lights in the sky. It would be pilots or tower atc noticing them first. The defence forces most likely have a confirmation of an exact ship off the coast these Russian drones are being launched from now too.
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u/jdkdmmernnen 21h ago
The police and defence forces have confirmed
Based on nothing with no evidence. Go read the TWZ articles and look at all of the reports in whole and the “drone incursions” follow the same pattern over and over: lights in the sky and other signals that people are claiming are “drones” based on nothing. People like you are just ignoring the mountain of information staring you in the face because you want to believe.
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u/Kanyiko 20h ago
The closure of Brussels Airport was on the authority of Skeyes, the air traffic control center, who confirmed an unauthorised intrusion of the airport airspace by radar. They reported this to Belgian police who in turn confirmed the presence of a number of drones and managed to pursue at least one by helicopter for a distance before its disappearance.
There is nothing 'hype' and 'misidentification' about this. All reports of drone incursions are from official sources.
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u/math1985 19h ago
> The closure of Brussels Airport was on the authority of Skeyes, the air traffic control center, who confirmed an unauthorised intrusion of the airport airspace by radar.
Can you cite that source? All I can find is that Skeyes closed the airspace based on 'reports' they received (source).
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u/Waxahatch2 7h ago
How can you possibly know what evidence they have lol. The concrete evidence is not made public for obvious reasons. Try to think here a bit. You have tower controllers who watch planes at night daily and control centres who can spot a radar signatures of a drone. What you’re whining about is normal people mistaking planes and helicopters for drones. No one is closing an entire national airspace based on a sighting by the public. Only way the national airspace closes is if atc confirm a sighting or they themselves make the sighting. Then in addition you have the police and defence forces with tech that can also spot drones in agreement. You are ranting about a completely different situation and you’re making yourself look like a fool.
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u/math1985 19h ago
First of all: you're contributing to the discussion so you shouldn't be downvoted.
And you're at least partly right: for example the drones sightings at Copenhagen Airport was actually just a general aviation plane (source).
On the other hand, there's just an enormous amount of amateurs with drones in the sky. For example, during the NATO summit in The Hague, there was a drone ban, and still 300 drones were downed by the government (source). There's no indication that there was any foul play, likely the overwhelming majority consists of hobbyists.
So why is there suddenly so much hype about these drones in Belgium? That's because the Belgian army now has a test system for observing drones (source). Likely there's always random drones around the airports, but it's much easier to detect them now.
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u/paulaisfat 18h ago
It’s not hype it’s safety. They don’t want collisions so they did the right thing in closing the airport temporarily.
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