Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 10/07/2025 1:19:17 PM PDT by Red Badger
An incident involving sightings of aerial objects in Lithuanian airspace led to a temporary shutdown at Vilnius Airport over the weekend, according to investigators.
The sightings, which officials have now confirmed were nearly two-dozen unauthorized hot-air balloons, delayed flights for several hours on Sunday. The balloons were reportedly carrying contraband cigarettes into the country’s airspace, investigators said.
Officials with Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center said the incursion was one of the largest of its kind in recent memory, impacting close to 6,000 passengers on Sunday morning. The incident unfolded amid heightened concerns over recent reports of alleged drone incursions in the airspace above several European nations.
Countries like Lithuania and its Baltic neighbors are especially sensitive to such incidents. On July 10, an incident involving a Russian-made Gerbera drone occurred, where the aircraft entered Lithuanian airspace from Belarus, crashing in Vilnius County. That same month, another drone incident involving the crash of an unmanned aircraft equipped with an explosive device prompted the Lithuanian parliament to vote to authorize its armed forces to shoot down any unmanned aerial vehicle violating national airspace.
During the balloon incident this weekend, two of the objects were tracked as they passed directly over Vilnius Airport, while an estimated two dozen more passed over the region beginning on Saturday evening.
Eleven of the balloons were later recovered by Lithuanian border police, according to CNN, revealing close to 18,000 packages of smuggled cigarettes officials recovered from several locations.
Similar smuggling operations have occurred in the region in the past, where Belarusian efforts have employed balloons as a more cost-effective alternative to drones for the transport of contraband such as tobacco products into the European Union.
Last year, Lithuanian authorities said they intercepted more than 960 balloons used in such smuggling operations, which were believed to have originated in Belarus, with the current total for this year now reaching 544 unauthorized entries.
While Lithuanian authorities recognize such smuggling operations as criminal activities, they are not deemed to be provocations by foreign actors, as is the case with purported drone incidents over several NATO-member nations reported in recent days.
In response to the European drone incidents, several officials in recent weeks have raised alarms over whether Moscow could be engaged in clandestine tests of NATO’s air defenses.
While the ongoing drone sightings in Europe have raised concerns over attempted “hybrid warfare” tactics being undertaken by Russia, officials in Denmark now say that several of the alleged drone incidents reported in its airspace have been debunked following additional investigations.
“According to DR’s information, several videos that the police have looked at in the investigation are of a training plane that flew from Roskilde Airport into Kastrup last Monday,” read a translation of a report by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation.
Addressing the incidents on Friday, Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said that while investigations continue, authorities are aware that there are a variety of conditions that can contribute to alleged drone sightings.
“I think the lesson from what we have seen in relation to drone observations, or what we now call aerial observations, is that it takes many different things to accurately see whether they are drones or whether they are other objects,” Poulsen said on Friday.
“The very specific assessment of what types of drones and to what extent the
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
UFOs!
Nicotine addicted Aliens................
More proof that we are being invaded by aliens from the planet Dji!
Cigarettes are remarkably cheap in Lithuania compared to the US. But Belarus still smuggles them in because the subsidies in Belarus make them so much cheaper there that it’s almost like the communist leadership of a country with dismal health care actively wants to reduce the cost of state pensions for retired workers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fpu5a0Bl8eY&list=RDFpu5a0Bl8eY&start_radio=1
I thot there where 99 luft ballons.
It was a great album. English and german versions. Rush used to bumper the song.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.