Lithuanian president's plane circled Vilnius for two hours due to drone in airspace

A Spartan aircraft carrying Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda was unable to land at Vilnius airport for some time due to reports of an unidentified drone in the airspace.

Source: LRT, a Lithuanian public broadcaster, referring to Nausėda’s spokesperson Tomas Beržinskas, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Flight tracking service Flightradar24 indicated that the president's plane departed Helsinki at 19:10 and began circling Vilnius before finally landing at 21:17.

Quote: "As the plane approached Vilnius airport, reports indicated the presence of a drone and that landing was unsafe at the time. The pilots took all safety measures and landed after some time."

More details: Oro navigacija, a Lithuanian air navigation company, clarified that the warning about a drone over the Liepkalnis area had come from the Lithuanian Air Traffic Control Service.

Quote: "Safety procedures were then activated: flights had been briefly suspended, and air traffic resumed once it was confirmed there was no threat. Together with other services, we are investigating which drone disrupted air traffic."

Background:

• On 31 August, the GPS system aboard European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s plane was jammed en route to Bulgaria. The Bulgarian authorities suspect Russian interference.
• In response to that incident, the EU plans to deploy additional satellites in low-Earth orbit to improve GPS resilience and detection of interference.
• Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied allegations of Russian involvement, but Bulgarian Interior Minister Daniel Mitov stated such claims should not be trusted.

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