Airspace Of Moldova Reopened - National Civil Aviation Authority

CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th February, 2023) The airspace of Moldova has been reopened, the national civil aviation authority (CAA) of the republic said on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, the Air Moldova airline said that the airspace of the country was closed and scheduled flights were canceled.

"Following the results of the meeting of the interdepartmental commission on airspace management at 11:24 (09.24 GMT) on February 14, in order to ensure the safety of civil aviation flights, a decision was made to temporarily close the airspace of Moldova. At 14:47 the airspace was reopened," the statement said.

The civil aviation authority added that the reasons for the decision will be announced later.

According to updated information, the CAA received a recommendation from the defense ministry to temporarily close the airspace to ensure the safety of Moldovan citizens after detecting an unidentified flying object, similar to a weather balloon, in Moldova's airspace.

Observation and identification of the object and its flight trajectory were hindered by weather conditions, the authority added.

Since the start of February, a number of countries have reported sightings of unidentified flying objects in their airspace. The US has detected and shot down four similar objects, including an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon.

Washington said the balloon was designed to gather intelligence about sensitive military sites in the country. Beijing, in turn, said that the balloon was a civilian airship engaged in scientific research and expressed regret over its unintended entry into US airspace, saying that the reason for this were force majeure circumstances.