The Smart Marty Sky Dispatch
Flights diverted from Rīga to Tallinn over drone suspicions Tuesday / Article
Two planes en route to Rīga were diverted to Tallinn Airport on Tuesday evening. Passengers shared this information on the social media platform Facebook, where the discussion has since been deleted.&...
Two aircraft were en route to Riga on Tuesday evening when air traffic was temporarily suspended and both were diverted to Tallinn, according to a Latvian source reporting on the event.
The flights involved were a Ryanair service from Oslo and an airBaltic service from Catania. An in-flight destination change was announced during the approach to Riga, with the Catania-originating flight reportedly being redirected to Tallinn.
A report from Latvian aviation authorities indicated that the decision to divert was linked to a claim of a drone sighting near Spilve Airport. The procedure followed was to suspend Riga Airport operations briefly and then resume, with the drone report not being confirmed as detected.
AirBaltic described the diversion as following standard procedures for sudden airspace or airport closure, noting that crews are not always informed in advance about such closures and are directed to the nearest suitable airport. The airline confirmed that 120 passengers were on the flight from Catania to Riga, with five reaching Tallinn and the remaining 115 arriving in Riga about 2 hours and 10 minutes later than scheduled, without compensation for the delay.