BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania briefly scrambled military jets and neighboring Moldova temporarily closed its airspace on Tuesday after authorities in both countries reported mysterious weather balloon-like objects crossing their skies.
The incidents happened around noon local time and sparked brief concerns in the two eastern European countries, both of which border Ukraine and are affected by the Russian war.
Romania’s defense ministry said it dispatched two jets, commanded by NATO, into its southeastern skies in search of an airborne object, which it described as small with “properties similar to a weather balloon”. It was first detected by radar systems in Romanian airspace at an altitude of about 11,000 meters (36,000 ft).
“The crews of the two planes did not confirm the presence of the airborne target either visually or on airborne radar,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that the two MiG-21 LanceR planes stayed in the vicinity for about 30 minutes before they returned to base.
It was unclear if the two incidents were related, and neither country said where they thought the items came from.
The events follow a series of similar incidents this month in the US, in which objects detected and shot down by warplanes included a high-altitude Chinese balloon crossing US airspace. China said it was a weather balloon that accidentally went off course.
The Moldova incident sparked widespread travel disruption and brief panics as authorities temporarily closed the country’s airspace over an object they later described as “similar to a weather balloon” sighted near Ukraine’s northern border.
Numerous flights to the country with around 2.6 million inhabitants, one of the poorest in Europe, have been canceled or postponed. Some were diverted to Romania.
“Given the weather conditions and the impossibility of monitoring and identifying the object, as well as its flight path… it was decided to temporarily close the airspace,” Moldova’s aviation authority said in a statement.
Romania has been a member of NATO since 2004 and a member of the European Union since 2007. Moldova is militarily neutral and therefore not a potential NATO member. It is seeking closer ties with the West and was granted EU candidate status last June, on the same day as Ukraine.
On Monday, Moldovan President Maia Sandu accused Russia of overthrowing her country’s government and derailing its path to EU membership.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Tuesday dismissed Sandu’s claims as “absolutely baseless and unfounded.”