Romania scrambles jets after drone breaches airspace

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania scrambled four fighter jets on Thursday after a small flying object, likely a drone, breached national airspace up to 14 km inland in the southeastern county of Constanta, the defence ministry said.

The European Union and NATO state, which shares a 650-km (400-mile) border with Ukraine, has had Russian drone fragments fall onto its territory repeatedly over the past year and a half as Moscow attacks Ukrainian port infrastructure.

"The radar signal indicated Romania’s land border was crossed at around 1600 GMT," the ministry said in a statement, adding the drone was first detected heading for Romania over the Black Sea.

Romania scrambled two F-16 fighter jets and two Spanish F-18s which are carrying out air policing missions in the country for the rest of the year. The pilots did not see the drone.

Residents of Constanta county were warned to take cover.

Army personnel will search for a potential crash site on Friday morning, the ministry said.

In early September, Romania and Latvia both had their airspace breached by Russian drones, prompting worries of escalation and defence ministers from NATO's eastern flank collectively called for a robust coordinated response from the alliance to drone airspace breaches.

A Russian drone breached Romania's air space again in late September.

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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