VILNIUS (dpa-AFX) – In Lithuania, flight operations at Vilnius Airport have been temporarily suspended for the second night in a row and the third time in a week following the sighting of weather balloons. For safety reasons, traffic was stopped for several hours on Sunday night because of the balloons that were flying towards the largest airport in the Baltic EU and NATO country. This was announced by the airport operator. The balloons are commonly used by smugglers to illegally send cigarettes from authoritarian neighboring Belarus to Lithuania.
According to the National Crisis Management Center, balloons flying in from Belarus were detected in various areas. A small drone was also spotted near the airport. She was quickly identified and her operator was arrested within a few minutes, center manager Vilmantas Vitkauskas said on the radio. Lithuania’s border guards also announced the arrest of four people suspected of being involved in smuggling by air.
Flights delayed or diverted, borders also closed
According to the airport, several flights were diverted, delayed or canceled. A total of 25 flights and around 3,500 passengers were affected by the restrictions during the almost six-hour closure, which was imposed at 9:35 p.m. local time. Due to the incident, the two border crossings with Belarus that were still open were temporarily closed for several hours overnight.
In response, Lithuania’s Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene called a meeting of the National Security Council for Monday and did not rule out a longer-term closure of the border with Belarus. Balloons had previously flown into Lithuanian airspace twice this week. They usually rise almost vertically and cross the border at high altitude. According to the authorities, this makes them difficult to recognize./awe/DP/zb