Air raid alert over Lithuania, airport closed due to balloons

On Sunday morning, Lithuania resumed flight operations at Vilnius' largest airport after a several-hour interruption due to unknown balloons in the airspace. Operations were suspended on Saturday evening after crisis management officials were alerted to approximately 13 balloons moving toward the airport.

For safety reasons, several flights to Latvia and Poland were diverted, departures were canceled, and a flight from Copenhagen had to turn back.

According to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the restriction was related to hot air balloon flights, but Lithuanian authorities did not provide further details about the incident. The incident comes at a time when European aviation is facing a series of similar disruptions, particularly from drones, which have caused operational disruptions in Copenhagen and Munich in recent days.

As a NATO member state, Lithuania already established a 90-kilometer no-fly zone along its border with Belarus in August to prevent drones from entering from its territory.

(reuters, max)