Prime Minister Luc Frieden has pledged to strengthen Luxembourg's response to unauthorised drones after sightings forced the temporary closure of Luxembourg airport on Friday night. Speaking after a meeting with the ministers responsible for home affairs and defence, Frieden said Luxembourg was confronting a new security challenge involving "potentially bigger drones" in the country's airspace.
"We have observed this over the past few days, which led to the precautionary measure last night to temporarily close the Luxembourg airport", the prime minister said.
The disruption forced 19 flights carrying more than 1,800 passengers to divert to airports including Cologne/Bonn, Brussels, Frankfurt-Hahn, Liège, Paris, Basel, and Strasbourg. Luxair accounted for 17 of the affected flights.
Luxair CEO Gilles Feith warned earlier on Saturday that displaced aircraft and crews would have a knock-on effect across the day’s schedule.
Frieden said the authorities were still working to establish where the drones had come from. "We cannot, at this moment, analyse exactly where these drones are coming from", he said. "We are in the process of analysing that between our various security forces."
Asked whether the drones had been launched from Luxembourg or from outside the country, the prime minister declined to provide further information.
"For obvious security reasons, we are not going into details about such aspects", he said, adding that Luxembourg's security services were sharing information with neighbouring countries and international partners.
Frieden acknowledged that incidents involving larger drones were new for Luxembourg but noted that other European countries had already faced similar disruption. "This is new for Luxembourg, but it is not completely new for our neighbouring countries", he said.
The government reconvened its inter-ministerial drone task force on Saturday morning. The body, chaired by Frieden, had already met on Thursday following reports of possible drones near Medernach.
The prime minister said Luxembourg would assess its resilience and work closely with neighbouring states and international allies as the investigation continued.
"We will make sure that, together with our partners, we can keep our populations safe", Frieden said. "That is our duty, and that is what we are going to do."
Questions remain over the number, size, and type of drones involved, as well as the identity and location of their operators.
