Air Alert in Lithuania Over Unidentified Object; Possible Drone Crash Checked in Pasvalys District
On the morning of Sunday, 18 October, the Lithuanian armed forces lost an unidentified flying object on radar, which had triggered an air alert in several regions. Soldiers and police are checking the Birzai and Pasvalys districts near the Latvian border after residents reported a possible drone crash.
An air alert was declared in several regions of Lithuania on the morning of Sunday, 18 October, because of an unidentified flying object that may have been a drone. The Lithuanian armed forces say the object is no longer visible on radar, and soldiers have been sent to the area in the Birzai district, near the Latvian border, where its signal was lost. They are checking whether the aircraft came down there. The incident matters because it concerns the airspace security of a NATO member state and also touched neighbouring Latvia.
What is known about the object
According to the Lithuanian armed forces, the object's signal was last recorded in the Birzai district. Both ground-based radars and NATO fighter jets tracked its movement. Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas told public broadcaster LRT that fog and clouds prevented the pilots from identifying the object visually, so no decision was made to destroy it. He explained that in peacetime it is necessary to establish what is in the airspace and what threat it poses before taking such a step.
The minister did not rule out that the object may have continued toward Latvia, but stressed that this has not been confirmed. He also suggested that the procedure for deciding on neutralising suspicious objects could be reviewed after the incident.
Resident reports and checks
Lithuania's National Crisis Management Centre received about 50 reports from residents about a possible drone crash. Police are also checking information about a possible explosion in the Pasvalys district, near the Latvian border. Centre head Vilmantas Vitkauskas said at around 9 a.m. that there was no confirmation of a downed drone and that the information was being verified. He suggested the object may have come down in an uninhabited area, a field. No reports of damage have been received so far.
Alerts in Lithuania and Latvia
A red-level warning of an airspace threat was declared in Lithuania, including the Panevezys and Siauliai counties. NATO fighter jets were scrambled and airport operations were temporarily restricted. The alert, which had been in force in some regions for almost an hour, was lifted at around 8:15 a.m. In Latvia, the National Armed Forces issued an orange warning for the Bauska, Aizkraukle and Ogre municipalities; the alert was later lifted there as well.
