Drone Near Airport Halts Air Traffic in Lithuania’s Capital

Air traffic at the airport in Lithuania’s capital was temporarily suspended after a drone was detected nearby.

LRT reported on this.

According to Tadas Vasiliauskas, a spokesperson for Vilnius Airport, around midnight on Wednesday, August 19th, air navigation specialists reported a drone flying over the city.

Following this, a decision was made to suspend air traffic. The suspension lasted about 30 minutes and was fully lifted at 00:35 a.m. Airport services responded by increasing patrols and surveillance in the area.

Due to the disruption, the departure of a flight to Tel Aviv was delayed, and several arriving planes were forced to circle in the holding pattern before landing, resulting in delays of 15 to 20 minutes.

On August 1, after several days of searching, Lithuania found a crashed Russian Gerbera drone that had entered from Belarus.

The Lithuanian Prosecutor General’s Office later stated that the UAV had been equipped with an explosive device.