A plane carrying Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda had to delay its landing at Vilnius Airport after reports of a drone sighting on Tuesday, presidential spokesperson Tomas Berzinskas told state broadcaster LRT.
“As the plane approached Vilnius Airport, we received information that a drone had been spotted and it wasn’t safe to land yet. The pilots took all necessary safety measures and landed a short while later,” Berzinskas said.
Latvian news outlet Delfi reports that according to Flightradar24, the president’s plane departed Helsinki at 7:10 p.m. on September 2, circled over central Lithuania, and landed in Vilnius at 9:17 p.m. A direct flight from Helsinki to Vilnius normally takes about an hour and a half.
LRT noted that the drone was seen over Vilnius’s Lepkalnis district. Its owner has still not been identified.
In late July, Lithuanian police reported that residents had spotted an unidentified drone entering Lithuanian airspace from Belarus. Five days later, the drone was found at the Gaižiūnai training ground in the country’s Jonava District. The aircraft reportedly resembled the Iranian Shahed/Geran drones that Russian forces have been using in the war in Ukraine.
