Luxembourg Airport temporarily suspended all flight operations on Friday evening, 18 September, after unauthorised unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) were detected in the vicinity of and subsequently over the aerodrome. The disruption affected 19 inbound flights and more than 1,800 passengers.
Luxair confirmed that 17 of its flights were diverted, while one KLM flight from Amsterdam and one Air Dolomiti service from Frankfurt were also affected. The diverted aircraft were sent to airports including Cologne/Bonn, Brussels, Frankfurt-Hahn, Liège, Paris, Basel and Strasbourg. The first affected aircraft was a Luxair flight from Heraklion, which was scheduled to arrive at Findel at around 22:10 local time.
Luxembourg Airport said the suspension was implemented as a precautionary measure to protect passengers, crews, airport personnel and aircraft. Operations resumed during the early hours of Saturday, although delays and further disruption were expected as aircraft and crews were repositioned. Luxair CEO Gilles Feith said the drone sightings had been visually confirmed and that the airline’s pilots had also reported drone sightings near the airport earlier in the week.
The Luxembourg government’s interministerial drone assessment unit was reconvened on Saturday morning to evaluate the incident. Authorities have not identified the operators or origin of the drones. The incident follows reports earlier this week of possible unidentified drones in the Medernach area, although no connection between the two incidents has been established.