Air traffic controllers at Berlin Brandenburg Airport were forced to suspend flights for two hours after a drone was discovered breaching its aerospace.
The incident occurred on Friday 31st October at around 8pm, with incoming aircraft forced to divert to other airports in Germany.
Ralph Beisel, managing director of the German Airports Association (Flughafenverband ADV), described the incident as a ‘wake-up call.’ He added:
When take-offs and landings are stopped and numerous aircraft have to be diverted to other airports, it is not only flight operations that come to a standstill, passenger confidence in the safety of air traffic also suffers.
Airports must not be left alone here. Drone detection and defence are sovereign tasks of the state and must be tackled comprehensively and consistently.
Drone overflights are on the up, with German traffic control reporting 155 incidents this year so far, a sharp increase from the 15 recorded in 2023. It is currently unclear if the latest drone intrusion was part of surveillance activities, as is suspected with recent drone overflights at Kleine-Brogel military base in Belgium.
Unnmanned aerial objects have caused further disturbance elsewhere in Europe. Vilnius Airport in Lithuania has been forced to close six times in October, for multiple hours on each occasion, due to helium balloons from Belarus entering its airspace. The balloons smuggle contraband into the EU, a criminal activity that also serves to put geopolitical pressure on the bloc.
Additionally, Russian drones have all invaded Lithuanian, Polish, and Estonian airspace in the past year as Putin tries to provoke NATO. To strengthen defence capabilities and keep airports running as normal, Europe must find a way to limit these incursions.
Join us at Aerospace Tech Week 2026
For more like this, see: