Three weather balloons cause closure of Vilnius airport, disrupting 20 flights

The airport in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius was closed again on the evening of 30 October for the first time this week due to weather balloons carrying contraband entering from Belarus. This has affected 2,000 passengers.

As reported by Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT, Vilnius airport did not accept or dispatch flights for around three hours on the evening of 30 October because of the presence of weather balloons from Belarus in its airspace. Flights resumed at about 23:00.

The enforced pause affected 20 flights and around 2,000 passengers, with some flights cancelled.

This was the first forced interruption at the airport this week. Previous incursions of weather balloons had been recorded last weekend, and in total, there were four incidents over the past week.

Unlike previous occasions, when dozens of weather balloons were detected, this time only three were spotted on the radar.

"This is very few compared with last week. But even a single object on the radar is already a danger," commented Vilmantas Vitkauskas, Head of the National Crisis Management Centre.

The Border Guard reported that two of these weather balloons had been found between 21:00 and 22:00 in the border area of Varėna, while one was located in Vilnius by the police.

After several consecutive days of such incidents, Lithuania closed its border with Belarus for a month, with minor exceptions for certain categories of people.

Lithuanian airports and the state airport operator plan to take legal action regarding the damage caused by the aerial balloons.