A drone sighting at Bremen Airport on Sunday evening halted flights for about 45 to 60 minutes. Individual flights were diverted or delayed. Similar incidents are increasing across Europe, including sightings over a NATO base in Belgium.
Flight operations at Bremen Airport came to a halt on Sunday evening around 19:30 when a drone was spotted in the immediate vicinity of the grounds. A police spokesperson confirmed that air traffic control, in coordination with federal police, temporarily suspended takeoffs and landings. Operations resumed at 20:22, marking an interruption of nearly 45 minutes or about an hour.
Affected were flights including one from London to Bremen, which was diverted to Hamburg, and a plane from Bremen to London that could not depart on time, as reported by the regional magazine buten un binnen. Police state it is unclear who controlled the drone or where it came from.
This incident is part of a series of drone sightings. On Friday evening, operations at Berlin's BER airport were suspended for nearly two hours, and early October saw a similar disruption at Munich Airport. In Belgium, multiple drones were sighted over the NATO military base Kleine-Brogel over the weekend. On Sunday evening, military and police detected four drones, which a police helicopter pursued until they disappeared north toward the Netherlands, according to Belga news agency citing Mayor Steven Matheï.
Belgium's Defense Minister Theo Francken wrote on X about earlier sightings in the night to Sunday: "Larger models at greater height. [...] No ordinary overflight but clear assignment with Kleine Brogel as target." A jammer proved ineffective, and pursuits failed. Francken announced a meeting with police to assess the threat. NATO refers to Belgian authorities. Additionally, a drone was sighted over Antwerp Airport on Saturday evening.
Drones pose a security risk as they can endanger takeoffs and landings. They are banned within a 1.5-kilometer radius of airports. Similar sightings have been reported in countries like Denmark, Poland, and Norway, some identified as Russian drones.
