On Wednesday, a mystery aircraft took off from Lithuania and illegally entered the airspace of several countries. The plane was later found in Bulgaria but without the crew.
The aircraft that took off from Lithuania flew over Hungary, briefly over Serbia and Romania, and on Wednesday at 19:09, entered the airspace of Bulgaria, the Bulgarian defence minister said in a statement.
The two-passenger aircraft had no approved flight plan, and its transponders were switched off. The pilot did not respond to radio requests and visual signals, the Romanian Defence Ministry added.
Two Hungarian Gripen fighter jets, two US F-16 fighter jets, and two Romanian F-16 fighter jets intercepted the intruder and escorted it until it entered Bulgarian airspace.
The Bulgarian Air Force did not immediately scramble the fighter jets because “the plane was not considered a threat at any time”, the country’s Defence Minister Dragomir Zakov told reporters.
He added that the aircraft was flying at a very low altitude and low speed, which would have made it difficult for fighter jets to intercept it.
The plane had stopped for refuelling in Vidin, a town in north-western Bulgaria. Officials later found the aircraft at an old airfield near the eastern city of Targoviste.
Bulgarian Interior Minister Boiko Rashkov told reporters that the plane’s engine was still warm when it was found. However, the crew members were missing, and their whereabouts are still unknown.
Mystery aircraft
Lithuania’s state enterprise Oro Navigacija, which monitors the movement of aircraft over Lithuania, said it did not know from where in Lithuania the plane took off on Wednesday.
The aircraft’s registration number was LY-LOO. This registration number is held by the 1962 PA-23-250 Aztec aircraft of the aircraft manufacturer Piper but is no longer valid.
“We have not received the flight plans of the aircraft, and the crew of this aircraft has not established communication with the operators of Oro Navigacija,” Ingrida Daugirdė, a representative of Oro Navigacija, told LRT.lt.
According to Lithuanian Airports, the aircraft did not take off from any of the major Lithuanian airports in Vilnius, Kaunas, and Palanga, but it could have done so from other smaller airports in the country.
Sold last week
The aircraft was sold last week by Bronius Zaronskis, a pilot and director of Nida Air Park. According to him, the plane was bought by foreigners. Three men came to inspect the aircraft.
“They were not Lithuanians. I cannot say which country they were from, maybe Ukrainians, maybe Romanians or Bulgarians. One man and I communicated with each other in Russian. [...] I don’t know the names of these men. I wasn’t interested,” Zaronskis told LRT.lt.
According to him, the plane was bought by an organisation.
“I sold it and said goodbye to that plane. I was trying to sell it for many years. I had nowhere to put it, so I am glad that they bought it. [...] I don’t remember which organisation bought it. It was written in foreign language,” Zaronskis said.
The plane was stored at Panevėžys airport. It probably took off from this airport on Wednesday, according to Zaronskis.
“They came to Panevėžys last week, and we were checking the plane for a few days, sorting out the paperwork,” the pilot said.
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