Drone sighting halts operations at Brussels Airport

On the evening of 04 November 2025, operations at Brussels Airport (Zaventem) were temporarily suspended after a drone was sighted near the airfield. According to reporting by Euronews, Belgium's air navigation service skeyes confirmed the first sighting at around 8pm local time, prompting a halt to arriving and departing traffic and the diversion of inbound flights to other airports, including Charleroi and Liege.

The airport briefly reopened before a second drone sighting forced another closure later in the evening, with normal operations resuming around 11pm. Euronews reported that the disruption left dozens of flights cancelled or delayed and stranded several hundred passengers overnight, while Liege Airport, a major cargo hub, was closed the same evening in a separate but near-simultaneous incident.

The Brussels disruption formed part of a wider wave of drone activity over Belgian airports and military sites in autumn 2025. In the days around the airport closures, drones were also reported near sensitive defence installations, and Belgian authorities convened the National Security Council in response. The operators of the drones were not identified, and no party claimed responsibility.

Attribution is unconfirmed. No operator was identified and no group claimed the flights. Belgian officials publicly voiced suspicion of deliberate, possibly hybrid, activity, with Defence Minister Theo Francken describing drone activity over the Kleine-Brogel air base as a targeted operation rather than a casual overflight, and Interior Minister Bernard Quintin calling the airport disruptions unacceptable. These are stated suspicions, not proven facts. The incident fits a pattern of unexplained drone incursions across Europe in 2025 that authorities have linked to suspected Russian grey-zone activity, but no confirmed link to this specific sighting has been established.