A Tu-134 passenger plane belonging to the Russian military briefly entered Lithuania's airspace due to bad weather last week, Lithuania's Ministry of National Defense said on Monday.
On August 6, the Russian plane was intercepted by NATO fighter jets policing the Baltic airspace. The aircraft was flying with its onboard transponder on, had a pre-filled flight plan and was in contact with the regional air traffic control center.
"There was an airspace violation due to bad weather conditions, the plane had warned it would do that because of bad weather conditions," Asta Galdikaitė, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defence, told BNS.
NATO jets were scrambled nine times last week to intercept Russian military planes, mainly fighter jets, over the Baltic Sea.
The NATO air policing mission in the Baltic states is carried out from Lithuania and Estonia.
