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 approaching Riga on Tuesday evening were diverted to Tallinn after a report of a possible drone near Spilve Airport, Latvian authorities said.
The two flights involved were a Ryanair service from Oslo and an airBaltic flight from Catania. The airBaltic aircraft initially continued toward Riga before it was announced that the flight would head to Tallinn.
Riga Airport temporarily suspended air traffic for about half an hour, then resumed operations once the situation was assessed. Latvian Air Traffic explained that the diversion occurred due to a report from a pilot claiming to have seen a drone, though it was not confirmed or detected.
airBaltic said crews divert aircraft to the nearest available airport when sudden closures occur, and that additional information would be provided by Latvian Air Traffic or Riga Airport. On the Catania–Riga flight, five passengers reached Tallinn earlier, while the remaining 115 passengers arrived in Riga about two hours and ten minutes later than scheduled; no compensation was noted for the delay.