Romania, and neighbouring Moldova reported a mysterious weather balloon-like object traversing their skies after which the former briefly scrambled military jets while the latter temporarily closed its airspace, reported the Associated Press. The incidents which occurred at around midday local time briefly raised concerns as the two European countries, which share borders with Ukraine, have been affected by Russia’s war. 


Romania’s defence ministry said it deployed two jets that are under NATO command to its southeastern skies to seek an aerial object it described as being small with “characteristics similar to a weather balloon.” It had been detected initially by radar systems in Romanian airspace at an altitude of about 11,000 metres (36,000 feet).


“The crews of the two aircraft did not confirm the presence of the aerial target, neither visually nor on the onboard radars,” a ministry statement said, adding that the two MiG-21 LanceR aircraft stayed in the vicinity for about 30 minutes before returning to base.


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“The Romanian fighter jets did not find any object, even if it was spotted on the radar … so no threat for the Romanian airspace,” Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York. 


However, the relation between the two incidents were unclear and neither country said where they believed the object had come from. 


After the authorities temporarily closed the country’s airspace, widespread travel and disruption and brief panic was triggered in Moldova over what they later described as an object “similar to a weather balloon” spotted near the northern border with Ukraine. 


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Several flights were cancelled or rescheduled while some were diverted to Romania. 


The incident came just days after a similar strings of comparable incidents took place in the US where objects were detected and shot down by warplanes included a high-altitude Chinese balloon that traversed American airspace. China said it was a weather balloon that had accidentally drifted off course.