Did a techno festival cause the dangerous laser incidents above Dilbeek?

Belgian air-traffic controller skeyes and the local police are examining whether a laser installation at the XRDS techno festival in Anderlecht caused five pilots to report disruptive light in their cockpits while approaching Brussels Airport over Dilbeek on Saturday evening, 15 August. VRT NWS reported on 19 August that images recorded around the time of the reports showed green beams pointing into the sky and that the festival did not have the required aviation authorisation for that installation. The source of the cockpit illumination nevertheless remains unproven. For residents, the practical point is simple: if a beam appears to be tracking aircraft, do not approach the equipment or stare into the light; record the time, direction and precise location if this can be done safely, and call 101 for urgent police assistance.

The chronology matters because initial reports blurred two separate sets of events. Het Nieuwsblad subsequently reported that two pilots approaching runway 25R via the Mechelen side of the airport made reports at about 02:43 on Friday night. Five further reports followed from aircraft using the RNP 07L approach on Saturday evening, with the light observed while the flights were over Dilbeek. It is those five Saturday reports that investigators have associated provisionally with the festival hypothesis.

XRDS took place on 14 and 15 August beneath the Brussels ring-road viaducts at Parc des Étangs/Vijverspark in Neerpede, Anderlecht, close to the boundary with the Vlaamse gemeente Dilbeek. The festival’s own programme confirms that Saturday performances continued until 01:00, while promotional material highlighted an expanded lighting design. Neither the event’s proximity nor the overlap in timing proves that its equipment reached the cockpits. Pilots can identify the general area from which a beam appears to originate, but locating a source from a moving aircraft at night is difficult.

Police commissioner Koen Luppens told Het Nieuwsblad that Dilbeek police received a call from skeyes shortly after 22:00 and sent officers to investigate. He described the search without an exact origin point as extremely difficult and said the festival hypothesis would be passed to investigators. The newspaper reported on 18 August that XRDS and Fuse could not be reached for comment that evening. No publicly reported finding has established intent, identified an individual operator or shown that anti-aircraft action was involved.

Why lasers are taken seriously

Aviation experts distinguish between a small laser pointer deliberately aimed at a cockpit and professional event lighting that enters controlled airspace because it was positioned or operated incorrectly. Both can create a serious distraction during approach and landing, when crews are managing altitude, speed, navigation and communication in rapid succession. VRT NWS cited aviation expert Luc De Wilde as warning that cockpit glass can scatter or refract a beam, producing disorientating visual effects. A momentary glare, after-image or loss of night vision can be operationally significant even when nobody suffers lasting injury.

The episode is not isolated. Skeyes’ official 2025 annual report recorded 169 laser-related incidents in Belgium, an increase of 80% from the previous year after a longer period of decline. Its 2024 report listed 94 incidents in 2024. The figures describe reports rather than confirmed prosecutions, but the renewed increase explains why controllers and police treat clustered observations as a safety issue rather than a visual nuisance.

The Federal Public Service Mobility and Transport says occurrences involving laser beams or other high-powered lights belong within Belgium’s aviation-safety reporting system. Professional organisations and private pilots can submit reports through the European Aviation Reporting Portal; the Directorate-General for Civil Aviation, known in Dutch as DGLV and in French as DGTA, uses those reports to identify and reduce risks. That portal is intended chiefly for aviation participants, not as a substitute for an emergency police call from a witness on the ground.

What residents and event organisers should do

For someone in Dilbeek, Neerpede or another neighbourhood beneath an approach path, a live beam directed towards aircraft warrants an immediate call to 101. The federal Belgium.be portal confirms that 101 is the Belgian number for urgent police help; 112 also reaches emergency services throughout the EU, although 101 is the faster choice when only police assistance is required. The 112 BE app can share a caller’s location with the emergency centre. Give the operator a street, landmark or map position, the beam’s colour and direction, whether it is moving with aircraft, and the time it began. Video may help later, but filming should never delay the call or expose the witness to the beam.

A non-urgent observation or saved footage can be taken to the relevant police zone. The linguistic boundary is worth noting: Dilbeek is a Dutch-speaking Flemish municipality served by Politiezone Dilbeek, while Anderlecht is a bilingual Brussels commune/gemeente. Emergency operators can route a report across that boundary. Residents should describe where the equipment appears to be, rather than choosing a police zone solely from where they are standing.

Event organisers have a different obligation. Before deploying outdoor lasers, they should consult the commune or gemeente handling the event permit and the federal DGLV/DGTA about aviation clearance. Anderlecht’s general police regulation prohibits projecting laser light capable of causing direct or reflected dazzling, while federal aviation authorisation addresses risks to air traffic. Approval for a festival or sound installation should therefore not be assumed to cover upward-directed lasers.

A sensitive local backdrop

The incident occurred amid opposition to heavier use of the RNP 07L arrival route over Dilbeek, Lennik and Roosdaal. BRUZZ reported that about 40 households had announced legal action against the Belgian state over aircraft noise. That dispute is real, but police said there was no evidence linking the campaigners to the laser reports, and local action groups explicitly rejected the conduct. Treating proximity and public frustration as proof would unfairly stigmatise residents and distract from the physical evidence.

The next useful developments will be technical rather than speculative: whether investigators can match the direction and timing recorded by pilots with festival footage, whether the lighting equipment’s specifications and operator logs are available, and what permits were requested or granted. Until those questions are answered, XRDS remains a possible source, not a confirmed cause. The lasting lesson is broader: in a densely populated region where nightlife, municipal boundaries and major flight paths overlap, outdoor lighting must be planned as an aviation-safety matter as well as part of a show.