Vilnius Airport closed: Major European airport closes again over 'balloon threat' from Belarus - is it open today?
A major European airport closed on Sunday evening due to a "balloon threat".
Planes were diverted from Vilnius Airport in Lithuania after airspace restrictions were imposed over the capital at 6.09pm (4.09pm GMT). The suspension lasted until 9pm and the airport is open this morning.
"Preliminary information indicates that the decision to impose airspace restrictions was triggered by navigational markers, typical of balloons, moving toward Vilnius Airport," the airport said. Vilnius Airport has been closed at least 10 times since early October.
The airport briefly halted operations late on Friday evening before resuming them on Saturday. Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of Lithuania's National Crisis Management Centre, described that night as "the peak of cynicism", saying that balloons from Belarus appeared from Friday evening until 6.30am on Saturday.
The Baltic country has claimed that helium weather balloons are being used to smuggle contraband cigarettes and slammed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for allowing the practice. Lithuania shut its border with Belarus in October, reopening it last week.
Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovic said the move was intended to "send a clear message to our not-so-friendly neighbour" over the balloon incursions, which Lithuania, a NATO and EU member, views as a deliberate act of sabotage by Belarus, an ally of Russia.
In response, the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: "Lithuanian politicians have decided to exploit the situation and place all the blame on Belarus, thus covering up their own inability (or unwillingness?) to find the smugglers' contractors inside Lithuania.”