Two eastern European countries claim aerial sightings, fail to confirm

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
15 Feb 08:45

Moldova and Romania could not confirm the presence of the objects in their airspace after taking defense measures.

A US fighter jet shot down a Chinese balloon off the coast of South Carolina on February 4, 2023. (Reuters)

Two eastern European countries claimed to sight unidentified objects in their airspace on Tuesday but could not confirm their presence following further investigation.

Moldova's civil aviation authorities announced in a statement that, after being notified by the Ministry of Defense of the presence of suspected ariel objects, that it decided to close the country's airspace.

The aviation administration said in a statement that "given the weather conditions and the impossibility of observing and identifying the object and its flight path," the airspace had been closed.

However, almost an hour and a half after the closure, the measure was canceled once the incident was deemed to have no threats to the citizens.

On its part, Romania scrambled two MiG 21 LanceR aircraft after the country's Air Force claimed to detect a balloon-like object in its airspace.

According to the Romanian Defense Ministry, the object was allegedly sited in the southeast of the country, however, it could not be confirmed despite despatching the jets, noting that it was flying at an altitude of 11,000 meters.

It's noteworthy that the claimed detections come shortly after the US announced that it has sighted and shot down several objects in its airspace since the detection of the first balloon on January 28, with the first alleged to be a Chinese espionage balloon as claimed by Washington despite Beijing confirming that it was a weather balloon that went stray and "regrettably" breached US airspace by mistake.