Vilnius Airport closes after drone sighting; two flights affected

(VILNIUS, LITHUANIA) Vilnius International Airport was temporarily closed on the morning of November 5, 2025 after an unknown drone was spotted inside the airport perimeter, prompting a brief airspace lockdown and a swift security response. Authorities restricted air operations from 09:50 to 10:18 local time, halting movements for 28 minutes and affecting two flights before declaring the airfield safe and resuming normal schedules.

Airport officials said the disruption was short and tightly managed.

“Current data indicates that the temporary closure of the airport affected two flights… The impact on flights was minimal,” said Tadas Vasiliauskas, spokesperson for Lithuanian Airports.

Security officers on scene described a small device that appeared briefly and disappeared just as quickly.

“It was a civilian drone. It stayed in the air, taking off and landing, for less than a minute,” said Ingrida Stragenė, a representative of the Public Security Service, which leads police-style security operations at major sites across the country.

The decision to close the runway and pause departures and arrivals came within minutes of the sighting, according to officials involved in the response. Stragenė said officers moved to tighten security immediately at Vilnius International Airport and in surrounding districts after the drone was detected. She added that “the drone and its operator have not yet been found.” With the device out of sight and no further incursions reported, air operations resumed at 10:18, ending the 28-minute closure that had temporarily closed one of Lithuania’s busiest gateways.

Authorities said no injuries were reported and no aircraft were forced to divert. The airspace restriction was limited and carefully targeted to the immediate hazard, a person familiar with airport operations said, describing the focus on ensuring pilots, crews, and ground staff were kept out of harm’s way while the area was cleared. The incident underscored how even a brief drone appearance can force an airport to suspend activity, particularly in a confined airfield environment where low-flying objects pose a risk to aircraft on approach or taxiing planes.

The airport remained operational for the rest of the day after the airspace was declared safe, and emergency protocols were stepped down. Lithuanian Airports, which operates the Vilnius hub, said the impact remained confined to the two flights noted by Vasiliauskas, with passengers re-accommodated. Officials did not release flight numbers or destinations, and there were no reports of missed connections or cascading delays across the network.

The incident comes amid a run of similar disruptions around Vilnius and other Lithuanian airports in recent weeks. Authorities have investigated drone sightings near airfields and cases of balloons carrying contraband drifting over from Belarus, a pattern that has led to temporary closures, heightened patrols, and a debate over who is responsible for repeated incursions. Lithuanian officials have said they are reviewing options to seek legal damages for disruptions caused by such objects, arguing that each suspension imposes costs on operators, airlines, and passengers even when the airport is closed only briefly.

The government has also taken broader steps at the border. Officials said Lithuania has closed its frontier with Belarus for a one-month period, with exceptions for diplomats, Russians transiting to Kaliningrad, and European Union citizens returning to Lithuania. The move was justified as a response to what officials describe as hybrid attacks involving balloons and drones, which have appeared along border districts and occasionally drifted toward populated areas and critical infrastructure. The European Union has warned of possible new sanctions against Belarus if cross-border provocations continue, adding pressure on Minsk even as investigators in Vilnius gather evidence from recent incidents.

Regional authorities said they are tracking a wider pattern across northern Europe. Airports in Denmark, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland have also reported periodic shutdowns due to drone activity, with brief closures becoming a familiar emergency drill at some facilities. In each case, the immediate danger centers on the risk of collision and the difficulty of detecting and tracking small devices that can slip through radar coverage and vanish within seconds. At Vilnius International Airport, officials said the device seen on November 5 remained airborne for less than a minute before returning to the ground, an interval too brief for a typical interception effort but long enough to force operators to bring traffic to a halt.

Lithuanian officials and European media have not ruled out possible Russian involvement in some cross-border aerial incidents in the region, citing earlier cases of drones and military jets straying into NATO and EU airspace. While investigators have not identified the operator behind the Vilnius drone, the National Crisis Management Center has been monitoring reports of flying objects detected near border areas. Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the center, confirmed that flying objects were detected near Baltoji Vokė, a town close to Vilnius and roughly 25 kilometers from the Belarus border, in recent monitoring activity. The center supports police, security services, and aviation authorities with risk assessments when objects appear close to sensitive sites, including airports.

The Public Security Service said it deployed additional officers around the airfield perimeter in the immediate aftermath of the sighting and coordinated with the airport’s internal security team to scan neighboring areas where a drone operator might hide. The device’s short flight and quick disappearance suggest the operator was close to the runway safety area, security officials said, but no arrests were announced and no device debris was recovered. Investigators have been reviewing surveillance camera feeds, radio logs, and pilot reports to reconstruct the incident timeline, while airport operations teams verify that no foreign objects or unauthorised hardware remain on the grounds.

Lithuanian Airports emphasized that standard safety procedures worked as designed. Air traffic controllers and ground operations teams rapidly communicated the hazard to pilots and halted movements, while security forces traced the device’s last known location and ensured it was no longer airborne before clearing operations to resume. The 28-minute stoppage reflected a conservative approach intended to make sure no second device appeared out of sight lines, a senior official said. Under international safety practice, any confirmed drone sighting within or near the airfield boundary normally triggers an immediate suspension of runway use until the risk is assessed and closed.

While officials provided only limited operational detail, the immediate cause for the shutdown was clear: a drone inside the perimeter. The device’s classification as civilian does not reduce the hazard it poses near aircraft, security officers say, since even small drones can damage engines or windscreens and distract pilots during critical phases of flight. Around Europe, aviation regulators have expanded drone rules, assigning zones where devices are prohibited or restricted. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency sets broad standards that national authorities enforce; details on safe drone operations and restricted airspaces are available from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.

The brief closure at Vilnius International Airport fits a now-familiar script. A drone appears, controllers halt traffic, police sweep the area, and flights resume once the airspace is cleared. What is different in Lithuania is the clustering of incidents tied to its border with Belarus and the government’s response, which extends beyond aviation. The temporary border closure, combined with talk of legal action for damages and close tracking of airspace incursions near places like Baltoji Vokė, shows a security system leaning forward and preparing for repeat events. For travelers, the outcome on November 5 was largely uneventful: two flights delayed and little else. For officials, it was another test of coordination among Lithuanian Airports, the Public Security Service, and the National Crisis Management Center.

No passengers or staff reported harm, and there were no signs of panic inside terminals. Boarding gates remained staffed as departures awaited the all-clear, and arriving aircraft held until controllers reopened the runway. The measured response suggests crews and ground teams are drilled for these scenarios. But the open question remains who was behind the drone and what the operator intended. Without an identified pilot or recovered hardware, investigators have little to analyze beyond camera footage and radar traces, making the case hard to crack unless witnesses come forward or a pattern links this sighting to others nearby.

For now, officials call the episode contained. Normal schedules returned within minutes of the airspace reopening, and the airport remained open for the rest of the day. The Public Security Service continues to search for the operator and has asked anyone near the airfield who saw a person handling a remote-controlled device around the time of the closure to contact authorities. As with earlier cases, the investigation may hinge on tracking where the device launched and landed—a challenge in urban areas where open fields, rooftops, and parking lots offer quick cover.

The airport’s decision to halt traffic over a drone that “stayed in the air, taking off and landing, for less than a minute,” as Stragenė put it, reflects the caution now baked into European aviation. Even a fleeting drone sighting can lead to an abrupt stop. Vasiliauskas’s message was that the system worked and the impact was light—

“Current data indicates that the temporary closure of the airport affected two flights… The impact on flights was minimal.”

The larger worry for Lithuania is frequency rather than scale: with airspace incursions surfacing across the region and the Belarus border remaining tense, every brief closure carries a reminder that the next drone could linger longer, arrive during peak traffic, or appear alongside others.

Lithuanian authorities say that is why security remains high and why they are considering legal routes to recoup costs when they can identify a responsible party. The European Union’s warning of possible new sanctions against Belarus if provocations continue shows how a small device can stir larger consequences when it crosses sensitive lines. In Vilnius, that line runs through one of the country’s busiest public spaces. On November 5, it took less than half an hour to close that space and reopen it. The search now turns to the few seconds when the drone rose and fell, and to whoever stood behind the controls.