Vilnius, Sept. 14 — Lithuania temporarily closed Vilnius International Airport and scrambled a NATO fighter jet on Sunday after radar detected what was initially believed to be a drone but was later identified as a large flock of birds.
Takeoffs and landings were suspended to protect civilian air traffic. Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center said the alert was lifted and the airport reopened within 38 minutes after the NATO aircraft visually identified the radar detection as birds.
Bird flock mistaken for a drone on radar
The fighter jet was scrambled from Šiauliai in northern Lithuania, where the Italian Air Force is currently deployed as part of NATO’s Baltic Air Defence mission. “In initial radar readings, the signatures left by birds can appear similar to those caused by drones,” the center said in a statement.
The incident comes amid heightened security concerns in the Baltic region following several cases in which military drones have strayed into the airspace of Finland and the Baltic states in recent months. In August, Lithuanian Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas said intelligence officials believed Russia was considering using captured Ukrainian-made drones to stage provocations against the Baltic region, an allegation Moscow has rejected.
Days earlier, Polish radar systems detected suspicious movement from the direction of the Belarusian border that was initially treated as an airspace violation but was later found to have been caused by a large flock of birds.
