NATO fighter aircraft were sent up over Lithuania after an object was reported to have entered the country's airspace, according to DW.com. The alliance jets shot down what was initially described as a drone, DW.com reports.
Coverage of the incident varied. BBC.com reported that NATO jets downed a drone that had flown into Lithuanian airspace. NBC News also reported the shootdown, and noted in the same headline that a Russian frigate had fired flares at a Danish helicopter.
Reuters later reported that Lithuania said the drone sighting turned out to be a flock of birds, after NATO had summoned its jets. Sky News carried a similar account, reporting that the drone alert over Lithuania turned out to be a flock of birds and that a NATO jet had been scrambled.
The differing accounts leave the sequence of events unclear from the available reporting. What the outlets agree on is that NATO aircraft were launched in response to a reported incursion into Lithuanian airspace, and that Lithuanian authorities subsequently characterized the object as birds rather than a drone.
The reports also place the episode alongside a separate incident involving a Russian frigate and a Danish helicopter, which NBC News mentioned in its coverage.
Lithuania borders Russia's Kaliningrad exclave and Belarus, and its airspace is patrolled by NATO allies as part of the alliance's Baltic air policing mission.
Watch for official statements from NATO and Lithuania's defense ministry clarifying what was detected and whether the alert prompted any change to air policing in the region.
