"Up to 25 small hot-air balloons, some of them confirmed to be carrying smuggled cigarettes, entered Lithuanian airspace late Saturday and forced the shutdown of Vilnius Airport, delaying flights for hours, authorities said. The balloons interfered with 30 flights, impacting some 6,000 passengers, according to Lithuania's National Crisis Management Center. Flights resumed at 4:50 a.m. (0150 GMT) Sunday. While the balloons turned out to be ferrying cigarettes, Europe is on high alert after intrusions into NATO's airspace reached an unprecedented scale last month."
"Border police recovered 11 balloons and some 18,000 packs of smuggled cigarettes in various locations, Buta told The Associated Press. Vilnius, Lithuania's capital, is located some 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the border with Russian ally Belarus. Belarusian smugglers are increasingly using the balloons, which are much cheaper than drones, for smuggling cigarettes into the European Union, Buta said."
Up to 25 small hot-air balloons entered Lithuanian airspace late Saturday, forcing the shutdown of Vilnius Airport and delaying about 30 flights that affected roughly 6,000 passengers. Flights resumed at 4:50 a.m. (0150 GMT) Sunday. Border police recovered 11 balloons and about 18,000 packs of smuggled cigarettes in multiple locations. Two balloons flew above Vilnius Airport and more than two dozen reached Vilnius County, with flights recorded between roughly 8:45 p.m. Saturday and 4:30 a.m. Sunday. Belarusian smugglers are using balloons as a cheaper alternative to drones, and recent airspace intrusions and prior drone incidents have raised security concerns and led to authorization to shoot down violating unmanned drones.
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