Malbork air alert, Sep 22 2026 - object lost from radar

Poland's military radar recorded an object near Malbork on Tuesday, September 22, 2026. It moved with the wind's direction and speed, then the signal vanished near the village of Żuławka Sztumska, close to the 22nd Tactical Air Base. AirVeto's wind data shows a steady north wind at 1,000 m from about 05:00 local that day, so an object riding it was heading south.

Rzeczpospolita reported that the object came from the north, over Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast. Defence24 wrote that it came from the direction of the Oblast. The Operational Command statements in those articles give no direction of origin, and the time of the signal loss has not been published.

Aviation could not identify the object, so ground teams searched where the signal vanished

Poland's Operational Command of the Armed Forces used aviation to identify the contact, but it could not establish what the object was, spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jacek Goryszewski said. Soldiers of the Territorial Defence Force, police and the fire service then searched the ground where the signal disappeared, with a helicopter overhead, to rule out that something had come down, Defence24 reported.

Local reports had suggested a drone had fallen. Asked about them by Dziennik Bałtycki, as carried by Nasze Miasto Malbork, Goryszewski answered "To za dużo powiedziane" (that's saying too much). He said the operation was prompted by a lost radar signal, not by a fall.

Officials named birds, a weather balloon and a weather anomaly as possible explanations

Goryszewski said the radar record could also have been a meteorological anomaly or a flock of birds. He also said it could equally well have been a flock of birds or a weather balloon, Nasze Miasto Malbork reported. None of the outlets quotes him ranking these explanations.

The Command did not define the contact as a threat because of its speed and direction, Goryszewski told Interia, as Rzeczpospolita reported. The search was a precaution under standing procedure.

Ground searches were under way by September 23 and due to continue the next day

The ground search was under way on Wednesday, September 23, according to Nasze Miasto Malbork, and was to continue on Thursday. Nothing confirms that an object fell near Malbork, Defence24 wrote. No source read for this page reports a find.

A steady north wind was blowing for most of that day

The Operational Command gave only the date for this contact, not a time. The figures below are AirVeto's model snapshot for 19:00 local, one reference hour within that day, not the moment the signal was lost.

At 1,000 m the wind came from the N at 45.3 km/h. At 2,000 m it also came from the N, at 46.3 km/h. At 3,000 m it came from the N at 47.9 km/h.

The hourly series shows the 1,000 m wind turning from the NW late on September 21 to due north by about 05:00 local, then holding there at 42 to 47 km/h through 23:00. The Command has not said at what altitude the object flew. At the 19:00 snapshot the three levels differ by less than 3 km/h, so an object at any of them would have been heading south at about 45 to 48 km/h.

That fits Rzeczpospolita's report that the object arrived from the north. AirVeto's data shows the speed and direction the Command describes were available that day, and it does not identify the object.

This reconstruction is based on reporting by Defence24, Rzeczpospolita, Dziennik.pl and Nasze Miasto Malbork, and on AirVeto's wind-model data for September 22.

A Russian helicopter crossed the border the next day

On September 23, a day after the radar contact, a Russian Mi-8 helicopter briefly crossed into Polish airspace near Braniewo, on a flight from the Kaliningrad Oblast. Command spokesman Goryszewski told TVN24 that Russia was again testing the readiness of Polish air defence. He described the Malbork contact differently: not defined as a threat, because of its speed and direction.

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Unlike the Braniewo crossing, nobody has said what caused the Malbork radar contact, or whether anything reached the ground. AirVeto will update this page if Polish authorities confirm an identification. AirVeto tracks Poland's airspace incidents at Dron nad Polską; see the methodology page for how these reconstructions are built.

Last updated October 26, 2026. AirVeto updates this page as Polish authorities confirm new details.