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After balloon race, Lithuanian pilot warns politics still shapes the skies
🇱🇹 Lithuania /Environment & Climate

After balloon race, Lithuanian pilot warns politics still shapes the skies

From Delfi · () Lithuanian

Translated from Lithuanian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Lithuanian balloonist Vytautas Samarinas said politics affected the 69th Gordon Bennett gas balloon race.
  • He said half the teams reached Lithuanian airspace, while five crossed Lithuania and landed safely in Latvia.
  • Samarinas criticised Lithuania’s air traffic authorities, saying some teams had to end their races there after flying more than 1,000 kilometres through German and Polish airspace.

The 69th Gordon Bennett gas balloon race brought competitors close to the Suwałki Corridor, where pilots had to navigate restricted airspace and safety buffer zones, according to Lithuanian balloonist Vytautas Samarinas.

Samarinas said balloons launched in western Germany rode strong westerly winds across Germany and much of Poland before approaching the corridor. Half of the participating teams, he said, managed to steer between the airspaces of two unfriendly countries and the safety zones set by race organisers, then enter Lithuanian airspace safely.

I want to believe this does not foreshadow upheavals.

— Vytautas SamarinasThe phrase appeared in the headline as he reflected on the political pressures surrounding the balloon race.

Five teams crossed all of Lithuania and landed successfully in Latvia. Samarinas singled out the Swiss team that won the race for choosing a particularly risky route. Instead of flying east with the other teams, it travelled northeast and bypassed the prohibited airspace over the Kaliningrad region from the west, staying over the Baltic Sea throughout the flight.

I regret to admit that many balloon pilots who entered Lithuanian airspace publicly complain about the unfriendly attitude of air traffic controllers toward balloons in Lithuania compared with Germany or Poland.

— Vytautas SamarinasHe criticised the treatment of pilots by Lithuanian air traffic authorities.

He also expressed disappointment with Lithuania’s treatment of balloon pilots. Samarinas said many pilots publicly complained that Lithuanian air traffic controllers were less accommodating than their counterparts in Germany and Poland. Some teams that had flown more than 1,000 kilometres through German and Polish airspace were forced to land in Lithuania and abandon the race before reaching Latvia.

Samarinas said he had experienced a different approach during a major parachuting event near Warsaw about a week earlier, when he received flight and parachuting permissions quickly and without bureaucratic delays. He wrote that Lithuania’s authorities had damaged the country’s ballooning image over the past three years while invoking aviation safety concerns.

What is currently unimaginable in Lithuania is that scenario.

— Vytautas SamarinasHe contrasted Lithuania’s procedures with the quick permits he received near Warsaw.
About this summary

Originally published by Delfi in Lithuanian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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