F-16s scrambled as drone crosses Moldova and crashes in Romania
A military drone traversed Moldovan airspace before crashing into a Romanian cornfield on Saturday, prompting NATO member Romania to scramble F-16 fighter jets and Moldova to halt civilian flights.
Emergency response and fighter jet deployment
The unmanned aerial vehicle entered Romanian airspace after crossing from Ukraine through northern Moldova on Saturday afternoon. Romanian defence authorities dispatched two F-16 fighter jets from the 86th Borcea Air Base to monitor the craft as it moved toward the country's northeast. Emergency authorities simultaneously issued mobile phone alerts to residents in border communities.
The aircraft subsequently plunged into an agricultural field near the village of Botoșenița Mare in Suceava County, approximately 20 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. The impact ignited a minor fire and gouged a crater one metre wide and 30 centimetres deep.
“Following reconnaissance missions carried out by internal affairs personnel, a fallen flying object was identified in a cornfield near Botoșenița Mare,” the Romanian Ministry of National Defence said in an official statement. “No casualties were reported, and a pyrotechnic team was deployed to the scene to assess the situation.”
Civilian air traffic suspended across northern Moldova
Radar systems operated by Moldova's National Army initially detected the unauthorized intrusion from Ukraine at 15:26 local time near the village of Vasilcău in the Soroca district. The drone briefly vanished from tracking screens before reappearing 37 minutes later near Cuconeștii Noi in the Edineț district as it crossed toward Romania.
The Moldovan Civil Aviation Authority temporarily shut national airspace across central and northern regions for nearly an hour to safeguard civilian aviation. The restriction grounded departures to Bucharest, Istanbul, and Alicante at Chișinău International Airport, while an inbound passenger flight from Sharm el-Sheikh was placed into a holding pattern over eastern Romania before landing safely.
The cross-border incident follows the discovery on September 8 of a downed Shahed-type drone near the northern Moldovan village of Mihăilenii Vechi. Moldovan police recovered debris containing a turbojet propulsion unit and explosive fragmentation pellets embedded in an agricultural crater.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
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