Liepna drone, Latvia, 24 Oct 2026 - found after six days

Latvia's army says a foreign drone was found on October 24, 2026, in a forest in Liepna Parish, Alūksne Municipality, six days after it received a report of an explosion-like noise there. AirVeto's archive holds a second drone believed to have come down on October 18, at Juodžionys in Lithuania, 222.8 km away: its first debris was found that morning.

Latvia's State Police received a report of debris on the morning of October 24 and confirmed it on arrival. The army has opened an internal review of its decisions during the incident.

The army received a report of an explosion-like noise on October 18 and searched for two days

The army, the National Armed Forces (NBS), told LSM English it received information on October 18 about an "explosion-like noise" in Liepna Parish. It began analysing airspace surveillance data and obtained information about a possible movement of an unidentified object in Latvian airspace. The army and State Police then searched for a crash site.

The search continued on October 19 and was called off after two days. The army said the information at hand was not enough to confirm the facts of the incident. The time of the noise has not been published.

A report to police on October 24 led to the wreck in a forest

State Police said they received a report on the morning of Saturday, October 24, of possible drone debris in the Liepna forest. Officers checked the hard-to-reach terrain and the report held up. The police opened a criminal case under the Criminal Law's chapter on crimes against the state and thanked a resident for reporting at once.

Explosive ordnance disposal soldiers collected the pieces, LSM reported. 15min and Delfi both report that Latvia's defence ministry calls the object a foreign drone. Its origin and the circumstances are under investigation, and no civilians were hurt.

No cellular warning was sent, and the army opened an internal review

The army said it did not send a cell-broadcast warning because the criteria were not met. It said "identifying a potential aerial threat requires evaluating data from multiple surveillance systems and a combination of tactical circumstances". The information available on October 18 could not identify the drone unambiguously or confirm a threat.

The army also opened an internal service check to assess the incident and its decisions. It said Russian electronic warfare can disrupt drone communications and navigation, so similar incidents could recur.

The defence minister said a Ukrainian drone could have glided in from Russia

Defence Minister Raivis Melnis told Latvian Radio that the wreckage lies near the Russian border. He noted that Ukraine's armed forces struck Russian targets on October 18. If the aircraft is Ukrainian, he said, it could have been shot down on the Russian side and glided in, which might explain why Latvian systems did not pick it up. He said the eastern border now has more radars and interceptor drones, but gaps remain.

Nothing published so far confirms the drone's origin. LSM listed the earlier 2026 cases: a drone fell in Krāslava Municipality on the night of March 25, and French jets shot down a drone on June 8, with no wreckage found.

Lithuania's October 18 drone fell 222.8 km away, and debris turned up that morning

By AirVeto's measurement, Liepna lies 222.8 km in a straight line from Juodžionys, where a drone fell in Pasvalys district on the same date. Police there received the report at 07:28, and the first debris was found that morning, 15min reported.

Lithuania's drone reached the ground under a red air alert. Latvia's gave no warning, and the army's search stopped before anyone found it. The nearest earlier pages in AirVeto's archive are in Latvia: the Balvi shootdown of August 14, 27.1 km from Liepna, and the September 1 drone alert across Alūksne Municipality, 27.2 km away.

Wind over Liepna Parish blew from the NNE at 1,000 m

The army has not published the time of the noise, so AirVeto's wind model is shown for 09:00 local time on October 18. At 1,000 m the wind blew from the NNE at 42 km/h. At 2,000 m it came from the N at 28 km/h. At 3,000 m it came from the W at 19 km/h.

The hourly table under the map shows how the wind changed through that day. The drone's altitude has not been reported.

This reconstruction is based on reporting by LSM, 15min and Delfi, and on AirVeto's wind-model data for the event window. How the model is built and where it is reliable is on the methodology page.