E-Paper
Lithuania suspends air traffic at Vilnius airport over hot air balloon threat
Air traffic tracker FlightRadar24 said at least eight diversions were reported at Vilnius airport.
Lithuania suspended air traffic at Vilnius airport over possible hot air balloons in its airspace, local media reported in the late hours of Saturday (local time).
"The decision was made due to a possible series of balloons heading toward Vilnius Airport," the operator said in a statement on its Facebook page. "As a result of this incident, flights have been affected."
Air traffic tracker Flightradar24 said in a post on X that at least eight diversions were reported.
In another post, Flightradar24 said, "Vilnius Airport has now issued a NOTAM closing the airfield until 2330 UTC (about 90 minutes from now). Additional inbound flights diverting".
“AERODROME CLOSED DUE TO METEO BALLOONS ON THE NORTH SIDE OF THE AIRFIELD,” Flightradar24's post on X read.
Public broadcaster LRT and BNS said the flight diversions were confirmed to it by the Lithuanian Airports (LTOU). LRT, citing a representative of LTOU, reported that flights were being redirected to Kaunas and Riga airports.
"Air traffic is temporarily suspended due to, to our knowledge, a possible series of balloons heading in the direction of Vilnius," a spokesperson for airport operator LTOU told BNS.
On September 27, the Public Security Service in Vilnius recorded three prohibited drone flights in the vicinity of the airport.
A flying drone was reported on August 21 as well. In both cases, flights were temporarily suspended and planes were diverted to other airports.
The threat over the airport comes amid a series of drone sightings over European countries. In September, several drone sightings over Denmark, Sweden and Norway resulted in the countries closing their airspace.
