RIGA, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Riga International Airport was shut down for half an hour on Friday afternoon because of a flying object spotted over the airfield, LETA news agency reported, citing the airport's representatives.
At 13:24 local time (1024 GMT), air traffic controllers suspended all outbound and inbound flights for half an hour after a pilot reported a suspicious object hovering over the landing strip. No drones were being flown over the airport at that moment, according to Latvijas Gaisa Satiksme, the company providing air navigation services in Latvia.
The incident affected three inbound flights. The airport has since reopened.
Riga Airport, the largest air traffic hub in the Baltic states, handled 6.63 million passengers in 2023, an increase of 23 percent from a year before. ■
