15 February 2023 , 02:37
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Fighter jets were scrambled yesterday after unusual balloon-like objects were spotted above two European countries.
Two military planes under NATO command were deployed at around midday on Tuesday by the Romanian defence ministry in response to an object detected at an altitude of about 36,000 feet.
Picked up by radar, it was described as having "characteristics similar to a weather balloon" - but the two MiG-21 LanceR aircraft did not find anything in the area, and stayed in the vicinity for about 30 minutes before returning to base
"The crews of the two aircraft did not confirm the presence of the aerial target, neither visually nor on the onboard radars," a ministry statement said.
Speaking to reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York, Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu meanwhile said that "the Romanian fighter jets did not find any object, even if it was spotted on the radar - so no threat for the Romanian airspace."
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Moldova was also forced to closed its air space yesterday after spotting a unknown object in the sky near its border with Ukraine around the same time, with several passenger flights cancelled and diverted.
It comes after President Joe Biden ordered a balloon to be shot down over the US on Monday (Chad Fish/AP/REX/Shutterstock)The nation's aviation authority said they had taken the decision after considering "the impossibility of monitoring and identifying the object as well as its flight path".
It is not yet known whether the two incidents are related, and neither Romania or Moldova have commented on the origin of the objects.
Authorities in Kyiv said last week that Russian missiles had entered the airspaces of both countries since the beginning of the Ukrainian invasion.
Moldova was granted EU candidate status in June last year, and Moldova's president accused Russia on Monday of plotting to use foreign "saboteurs" to thwart their attempts to join the union.
The incident in Europe comes after US fighter jets shot down an "unidentified object" over Lake Huron on Monday - the fourth object to enter North American airspace in just over a week.
The White House has said it believes China has a high-altitude balloon programme for intelligence collection, which is connected to its army.
According to the Pentagon, the object was spotted near the eastern portion of Michigan's Upper Peninsula over Lake Huron before crossing into near "sensitive sites."
China's Foreign Ministry said the unmanned balloon was a civilian meteorological airship that had blown off course, while a spokesperson claimed the US had "overreacted" by shooting it down.