Drone mania. Media Mistook a Police Helicopter for a ‘Large Drone’ at Brussels Airport

Latest update: November 6, 2025

Brussels Airport was at November 4, 2025 closed for a few hours because a drone was reported flying in the area of the airport. Multiple fights had to divert. But was it a drone spotted in the video’s published by Belgium media or was it a police helicopter?

Belgium newspaper HLN reported at November 5, 2025 that a massive drone was spotted near the airport. A video shows something flying close to the terminal building. The article reads:

The drone that was spotted at our national airport yesterday was most likely not operated by an amateur. This newsroom learns that from well-informed sources. When Brussels Airport reopened, the drone immediately returned and flew very deliberately past the control tower, which was also able to film it clearly. This is being viewed as a provocation.

Dutch media like NU.nl , AD and RTL Nieuws also published the video stating that it was a large drone.

However, a few minutes research by this website learned that the aircraft seen on the video is not a drone but a Belgium police helicopter. Although no drone is visible in the video, it certainly cannot be ruled out that one or more drones were in the vicinity of the airport that evening.

Also the ‘ drone’ was not filmed from inside the control tower.

To start with, the video does not have sound. Would it have sound, it would be clear there was a helicopter. To check that is was a helicopter Flightradar24 can be used. However FR24 does not show all aircraft. Some operators request FR24 to block their aircraft. To check if there was a helicopter the evening of November 4, another flighttracking website was used. Contrary to FR24, ADSBexchange shows all traffic. The replay feature allows to see what flights were operated in the past.

The postion of the person who filmed the helicopter is roughly as indicated in the image below.

HLN writes that the ‘ drone’ was filmed when Brussels Airport reopened. The drone immediately returned and flew very deliberately past the control tower. The airport opened again after the first stop at around 20:09 UTC (21:09 local time). At around 20:40 UTC (21:40) the airport was closed for the second time that night.

In the video we see a recording of the flightpath of a Belgium Police helicopter. It is a MD-900 Explorer with registration G-16. It starts from the military base Melsbroek located at the western part of Brussels Airport. The start is at 20:36:35 UTC. The flightpath in the first minute of the flight matches what can be seen in the video. Likely the helicopter started a mission to search for the reported drone.

The red light of the helicopter shows that you are watching towards the lefthand side of the heli. A greenlight shows you are watching the righthandside of the heli.

This video shows both the red and green light, located near the tail.

On this page a video made by Bart Dewaele can be seen of the police helicopter. The text reads the helicopter is chasing a drone. However there are two different shots taken from two different positions near the airport. The first shots end at 10 seconds. Then the next shots starts.

To conclude: on the video a Belgium police helicopter can be seen. Not a drone. Now where was the video shot? See below the video.

The video was not shot from the control tower. The tower is opposite to where the video was made, to the west side of the runway 01-19. Instead the video was made from the terminal building.

The actual control tower can be seen in the image below

According Elwin Van Herck, CEO of Noordzee Drones the video does show a drone. He says to newspaper HLN:

“I can’t identify a brand, but I can identify the type. First of all, I can say this is not for civilian use. This is not an aircraft you can simply buy on the open market; it’s a defense aircraft used by the military. We call it a VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) drone, because it can take off and land vertically, like a helicopter. It has a wingspan of about three to four meters and can stay in the air for around 15 to 20 hours. It weighs roughly 20 to 40 kilograms and can only carry light payloads, such as a camera. A key strength of the aircraft is that it can fly very low, down to 100 to 200 feet — that’s roughly 30 to 61 meters — and, as you can see, right near the control tower at Zaventem.”

It is not logical such a large drone operated by Russian armed forces will fly that close to the airport. There is a risk the drone is shutdown. Then it will be clear by the type this was a Russian drone. If Russia is using drones for whatever reason, it is much more likely consumer grade drones are used. In that case if a drone is shot down or fails for whatever reason, the operator cannot be traced.

The videos

Belgium media published two video’s which were believed to be drones.
Video 1 is the one discussed above. It has a HLN watermark. The video shows one of the fingerpiers of Brussels Airport with an Emirates Boeing 777 parked.
This is a zoomed in version of video 1.
This is the original video without the watermark.

When analyzing this video, one must take into account several distortions. First, the light from the navigation and anti-collision lighting is reflected on the rotor blades, which creates a distorted image. In addition, the video was recorded through glass, which also causes visual distortion.

Video2 shows a helicopter flying in the distance from left to right. There are some yellow DHL cargo planes visible. Also a Boeing 747 cargoplane can be seen parked. This video was published by Nieuwsblad. The video was made by photographer Bart Dewaele. This is the same video published by HBVL.

The helicopter

The Belgium federal police uses the McDonnell Douglas MD900 Explorer for various tasks. The five heli’s are based at Melsbroek, the military base part of Brussels Airport.

In the technical description of the helicopter there is a picture showing the location of all the lights. External lighting on the MD 902 consists of two red anti-collision strobe lights, four position lights (one green, one red, and two white), a hover light, and a landing light,

A strobe light is a type of light that flashes very quickly in short, bright bursts instead of shining continuously.

From the video above we see that the red and green lights on the wingtips are on continuously. Also the white light located below the tail, indicated by ‘ tail light’ is on continuously.

The green light is located on the righthandside of the helicopter.
The red light is located on the lefthandside of the helicopter.
When the helicopter is flying from left to right from an observer on the ground, only the green position light can be seen, as the red light is blocked by the tail and wingtip.

Depending on the position of the helicopter and the direction in which it is flying relative to an observer on the ground, the observer may see two white lights, a steady red light and a red flashing light, a steady green light with a red flashing light, or other combinations

Next to the white light is a red strobe light. This flashes twice with a very short interval, then stops blinking for almost two seconds, and then flashes twice. However not all videos showing this type of helicopter show a flashing red strobe light.

The two red anti-collision lights are pilot controlled using an on-off switch located on the lighting control panel. The four position lights are pilot controlled using an on-off switch located on the lighting control panel. The hover light is pilot controlled by using a three-position switch located on the collective stick switch panel, and is also illuminated when the landing light switch is activated. The hover light can be operated independent of the landing light. The landing light is pilot controlled using a three-position switch located on the collective stick switch panel.

So the pilot decides which lights are on or off.

The Belgium police helicopter also has a white landinglight located under the cockpit.

A user on Metabunk named UAV Hive compared the two videos. Video2 is clearly a helicopter operated by the police. The frequency of the strobe blinking light in both videos is almost the same. The video on top is Video2, the lower is Video1.