Fighter jets scramble, interrupt leaders in Lithuania

A news conference at a NATO air base in Lithuania featuring Lithuania’s president and Spain’s prime minister got abruptly cut off when the pair of Spanish fighter jets serving as the backdrop were scrambled to monitor a situation in the Baltic skies

HELSINKI -- A news conference at a NATO air base in Lithuania featuring Lithuania's president and Spain's prime minister got abruptly cut off Thursday when the pair of Spanish fighter jets serving as the leaders' backdrop were scrambled to monitor a situation in the Baltic skies. The Spanish government said an unidentified plane prompted the alert and briefly interrupted remarks by Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Spanish media reported that the plane was Russian, but the government’s statement didn’t specify. Nauseda and Sánchez were speaking with two Eurofighter Typhoons behind them at the base in the town of Siauliai when security officials suddenly interrupted the leaders as crews scrambled to get on the fighter jets, live footage from the press conference showed. “Our press conference was interrupted by a real call....You see, everything works great. I can confirm that the fighter jets took off in less than 15 minutes" of receiving the alarm, Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT quoted Nauseda as saying after the incident. "Thanks to Pedro (Sánchez), we have really seen how our air policing mission works.”