“Tonight, a large number of smuggling weather balloons were again released from Belarus towards Lithuania, which made it necessary to temporarily close the airports in Vilnius and Kaunas. In response to this situation, the State Border Protection Service has closed the border crossings in Soleczniki and Medniki with Belarus until tomorrow at 12 noon,” wrote Ruginiene on Facebook.
Why were the border crossings with Belarus closed?
How long will the airports in Vilnius and Kaunas be closed?
How many flights were affected by airport closures?
When did the previous balloon incidents occur?
Airports in Lithuania's two largest cities were closed just after 10 p.m. 20.30 local time (7.30 p.m. in Poland) due to weather balloons flying from Belarus towards the cities of Druskininkai and Soleczniki. Initially, both airports were to be closed until 10 p.m. local time, but later it was extended by another four hours.
The airport closure affected four flights in Vilnius – arrivals from Copenhagen, Helsinki, London and departure to Warsaw – and three flights in Kaunas – arrivals from Dublin and London and departure to London.
This is the third such incident since the beginning of October. The previous one took place on Tuesday evening, when due to the appearance of several dozen smuggling balloons, the airspace over the Vilnius airport had to be closed and 12 flights had to be diverted.
The next day, Lithuanian authorities stated that it was the largest ever incident of balloons violating Lithuanian airspace.
