Vilnius airport halts flights again after balloon sightings
Operations at Vilnius International Airport were briefly suspended on Nov. 30 after unidentified objects — believed to be balloons — were detected in the surrounding airspace, the airport said. The incident marks yet another disruption in Lithuania, which has faced repeated flight interruptions over the past months.
European airports have increasingly dealt with airspace alerts involving drones or unidentified objects, prompting temporary shutdowns in cities such as Copenhagen and Brussels.
Lithuanian authorities extended the latest airspace restrictions until 5 a.m. local time on Dec. 1.
Officials in Vilnius have long attributed many of these incidents to weather balloons used by smugglers to ferry illicit cigarettes across the border from Belarus. The Lithuanian government accuses Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko of deliberately allowing — and effectively weaponizing — the practice, describing it as part of a wider "hybrid attack" on the Baltic state.
In October, Lithuania shut down both of its remaining border crossings with Belarus in response to a surge of balloon incidents. Lithuania shares a 680-kilometer (420-mile) border with the country.
The checkpoints were reopened last week after the situation appeared to stabilize and no new disruptions were reported, according to Reuters.
Lukashenko accused Western countries of waging a hybrid war against Belarus and Russia. and dismissed Lithuania’s border closures as "a crazy scam."
