Journalism of Courage
Another European country, Lithuania, suspended its air traffic late on Saturday after hot air balloons were reportedly flying in its airspace, which led to flights being diverted to neighbouring countries, the airport’s operator said on Saturday, Reuters reported.
This comes after European aviation has been facing an imminent shutdown of its air traffic in the recent weeks due to drone sightings and air space violations in Poland, Romania, Germany among others.
In a statement on its website, Lithuania’s airport said “Attention: The airspace over Vilnius Airport is closed,” and added that the closure is expected to last until 2:30am (local time) on Sunday. Passengers were urged by the airport operator to check for updates on the airport’s website and through airline announcements.
In a post on social media, the airport informed, “According to our information, the decision was made due to a possible series of balloons heading toward Vilnius Airport. As a result of this incident, flights have been affected.”
The flight departures at the Vilnius Airport were cancelled and most of the incoming flights were diverted to nearby Latvia and Poland, the operator said. A flight that was coming from Copenhagen was returned to Denmark, Reuters reported.
Poland, a NATO member, had announced in August that a 90 kilometers long no fly zone will be observed parallel to the country’s border with Belarus after reports confirmed that drones were incursion into its airspace from there, and it would also allow Poland’s armed forces to respond to any airspace violations.
Air traffic tracker Flightradar24 also posted about Lithuania’s Vilnius Airport situation and wrote in a post on X, “Flights to Vilnius have been diverted for the past few hours, with 8 diversions so far. Lithuanian broadcaster LRT reporting, possibly due to a hot air balloon near the airport.”
(with input from Reuters)
