Up to 25 small hot-air balloons, some of them confirmed to be carrying smuggled cigarettes, entered Lithuanian airspace late Saturday and forced the shutdown of Vilnius Airport, delaying flights for hours, authorities said.
The balloons interfered with 30 flights, impacting some 6,000 passengers, according to Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center. Flights resumed at 4:50 a.m. (0150 GMT) Sunday.
While the balloons turned out to be ferrying cigarettes, Europe is on high alert after intrusions into NATO’s airspace reached an unprecedented scale last month. Some European officials described the incidents as Moscow testing NATO’s response, which raised questions about how prepared the alliance is against Russia.
Lithuania and the rest of the Baltics are especially concerned. On July 10, a drone identified as a Russian-made Gerbera flew into Lithuania from Belarus and crashed in Vilnius County.
Another crashed at a military training ground on July 28 and was found a week later. The military later said it was carrying an explosive device. After those incidents, the parliament voted to allow the armed forces to shoot down any unmanned drone violating its airspace.
