Against the backdrop of ongoing regional tensions, on September 12, 2026, the Republic of Moldova once again found itself at the center of an incident involving a violation of its airspace. The country's Ministry of Defense reported the unauthorized entry of an object into national airspace from the direction of Ukraine. To ensure the safety of civil aviation, authorities were forced to temporarily close part of the airspace, which led to the delay of several international flights. The photo shows the airport terminal that bore the main operational consequences of the incident.
Timeline of the incident
According to Moldova's defense ministry, military radars detected the object that had entered the airspace without authorization at 15:26. At the same time, a border police patrol visually spotted the drone in the area of the village of Vasilkovo in Soroca District. According to official information, the drone flew over the country's territory, after which it disappeared from radars near the village of Baksany in the same district. At 16:03, the UAV was detected again — this time in the area of the village of Cucuteni Nou in Edineț District in the north of the country.
Authorities' response and airspace closure
To ensure the safety of civil aviation, authorities temporarily closed the airspace in the northern and central parts of the country. The central zone was reopened at 16:20, and the northern zone at 16:30. Thus, the restrictions lasted less than an hour, but that was enough to affect the operation of airport infrastructure and the schedule of several flights.
Impact on air traffic
The restrictions directly affected several flights. An aircraft operating the Sharm el-Sheikh — Chișinău route spent some time in a holding pattern near the Romanian city of Bacău, circling while awaiting clearance to enter the airspace. Departures for the Chișinău — Bucharest, Chișinău — Istanbul and Chișinău — Alicante flights were also delayed. After the restrictions were lifted, flights resumed in normal mode, with authorities warning that, due to the temporary airspace closure, further schedule changes and delays of individual flights were possible.
Context: not the first case this week
It is worth noting that this is not the first case of Moldova's airspace being violated by drones. On September 8, the country recorded the flight of a Shahed-type strike drone, which also led authorities to temporarily restrict flights. At that time, Moldova clarified where the plane of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was located when the drone appeared — it was at Chișinău airport. The recurrence of such incidents within a single week raises questions about the safety of the region's airspace.
