Air traffic at Eindhoven airport in the south of the Netherlands was temporarily suspended after multiple drone sightings forced authorities to shut down the airspace for several hours, before operations resumed late on Saturday night.
Traffic restarted around 11pm local time, Dutch Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans confirmed, roughly two hours after the disruption was first reported.
“Defence has taken measures,” he said. “Out of security considerations no further information can be shared.”
Eindhoven functions as both a civilian and military airport, and the shutdown applied to all types of air traffic. When pressed on where the drones came from, the Ministry of Defence declined to provide further details.
In a related development, the Defence Ministry confirmed that Dutch military forces fired at drones detected over Volkel Air Base on Friday evening. Security staff reported the drones between 7pm and 9pm, prompting ground-based weapons to be used in an attempt to bring them down.
“The drones left the area and were not recovered,” the ministry said in a statement.
Investigations by the Dutch military and civilian police are ongoing, but officials say it remains unclear why the drones were operating near the base. As with the Eindhoven incident, no further details were released due to security concerns.
Volkel Air Base is operated by the Royal Netherlands Air Force, and Dutch law strictly prohibits drone use near airports and military facilities due to flight safety and national security risks.
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