NATO jet downs drone over Lithuania after midnight airspace alert

A NATO fighter brought down a drone near the village of Pratkūnai in Kaunas County, Lithuania, shortly after midnight on September 15, 2026. Lithuania's National Crisis Management Centre said the aircraft is thought to have come in from Belarus, though where it originated has not been confirmed.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said the drone had entered the country's airspace and was destroyed by allied jets, and thanked NATO personnel for responding quickly. Residents had been told an air threat was possible and advised to work out where they would go if the alert was raised to red.

Officials have not disclosed the drone's type or the details of how the interception unfolded. Nausėda placed the episode in the context of the wider regional security situation, saying Lithuania and its NATO partners would keep guarding the country's airspace.

The shootdown came two days after a separate alert. Fighters that took off from Šiauliai Air Base determined that a flock of birds had set off a yellow warning that stopped traffic at Vilnius Airport for 38 minutes on September 13, 2026, according to the National Crisis Management Centre.

That alert applied to Vilnius city and district along with the Trakai and Elektrėnai districts, and ran from 12:59 to 13:37 local time. State airport operator Lietuvos oro uostai told the news agency BNS that three flights were affected. Two arrivals, from Antalya and Amsterdam, were sent to Kaunas Airport before continuing to Vilnius, while a flight that had left Warsaw turned back.