Unidentified and apparently hostile drone activity in European airspace appears to be increasing. Brussels Airport at Zaventem was closed for half an hour on the evening of Thursday, 6 November 2025, due to a drone sighting. Belgian air traffic control took the decision to close the largest national Belgian hub at 9:20 pm, VRT reported.
Brussels Airport spokesperson and media relations manager, Ariane Goossens, told Travel Tomorrow: “One Transavia flight from Alicante was diverted to Amsterdam because the airspace was temporarily closed yesterday evening due to a drone sighting. Air traffic resumed after 30 minutes and there is no impact on our operations today [Friday 7 November].”
🚨Drones spotted again in #Belgium
— News.Az (@news_az) November 7, 2025
A new drone sighting has been reported in Belgium, this time at #Melsbroek Air Base. There have also been reports of drones in the area of Brussels Airport and the Deul nuclear power plant. The published footage was taken at Melsbroek Air… pic.twitter.com/cobbHaLrE4
Thursday’s closure was not the first in response to drone incursions in the Belgian skies in recent days. Tuesday 4 November saw two shutdowns after similar incidents, one near Limburg’s nuclear bomber base. Just before 8:00 pm on Tuesday, three drones were seen flying through Brussels airspace, causing Zaventem to ground all departing flights and suspend operations for incoming flights, which had to be diverted to nearby Maastricht (Netherlands), Eindhoven (Netherlands), Amsterdam (Netherlands), and Charleroi Brussels South (Belgium).
The airport reopened just after 9:00 pm but had to close again after another sighting. Air traffic then resumed at approximately 11:30 pm. On Wednesday, 5 November, another drone spotting occurred near Florennes’ F-35 station.
Drone sightings – Flights at #BrusselsAirport have resumed after #drone sightings on Tuesday evening. Some flights were suspended or diverted for safety. Operations on Wednesday morning may still face delays or cancellations.
— Brussels Airport (@BrusselsAirport) November 5, 2025
👉 Check updates: https://t.co/SiKwnG424A pic.twitter.com/3NkCKdbF3G
Belgium is not the only country dealing with drone incidents. Well-documented Russian drone incursions into Polish airspace, which led politicians there to request security consultations under NATO’s Article 4, have been followed by other drone sightings over Denmark and Norway.
To defend against such moves, Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President, recently used her State of the Union address to announce plans for an “Eastern Flank Watch” or drone wall, which some countries want to see from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Belgium is effectively the bearer of the Russian funds that the European Union froze at the start of the Ukraine-Russia war, which could be used for shoring up Ukraine’s and Europe’s defences in this way.
“In light of persistent Russian drone incursions at our borders, we need to act now… and that is why we will propose immediate actions to create the drone wall as part of the Eastern Flank Watch,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has declared. pic.twitter.com/OADJPyUvCC
— Brian McDonald (@27khv) September 30, 2025
Against that backdrop, on Thursday, Belgium’s Defence Minister Theo Francken said morning that “it’s clear who is responsible,” which many took to mean Russia, though Russia has denied it is behind the drones.
Also on Thursday, Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever called a crisis meeting, which resulted in a decision to bring forward the launch of the National Airspace Security Centre, 30 km east of Brussels, to January 2026.
