Romanian Navy divers neutralize drone debris in Black Sea off Chituc coast

Black Sea naval intervention

On Sunday morning, 20 September 2026, explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) combat divers from the Romanian Naval Forces conducted a targeted mission to neutralize drone fragments discovered in the Black Sea. The maritime intervention took place at approximately 09:30 local time, roughly 50 nautical miles east of Grindul Chituc, a coastal sand spit situated in Constanța county. Military specialists deployed directly to the maritime coordinates and secured the surrounding marine perimeter during the execution of standard disposal procedures. Technicians worked to verify the floating object and safely neutralize any explosive risks associated with the debris. Following the completion of the technical operation, the Ministry of National Defence confirmed that the floating debris posed no danger to the civilian population along the coast and caused no disruption to commercial naval traffic operating across Black Sea shipping routes.

Coast Guard notification and deployment

The naval response commenced after the Romanian Coast Guard contacted the Ministry of National Defence on Saturday, 19 September 2026, regarding an unidentified floating object spotted at sea. Coast Guard personnel requested military intervention after initial visual assessments indicated that the floating structure was likely a component of an aerial drone. Specialized EOD combat divers from the Naval Forces subsequently deployed to the specified maritime coordinates off the coast of Chituc to inspect the object, establish a secure zone, and carry out standard neutralisation protocols under naval defense regulations.

The Ministry of National Defence outlined the timeline of the Coast Guard request and its safety evaluation in an official statement released on Sunday morning.

The Ministry of National Defence was requested on Saturday, 19 September, by the Coast Guard, to intervene for the verification of a floating object, a possible aerial drone fragment, identified at approximately 50 nautical miles East of Chituc, Constanța county.

Prior airspace incursions and land crash

The offshore operation follows an airspace breach reported by the Ministry of National Defence in north-eastern Romania during the previous week. During that earlier event, two Romanian Air Force F-16 fighter aircraft scrambled from an airbase after radar systems detected an unauthorized drone navigating within national airspace and heading towards north-eastern territories. Civil protection authorities issued a public RO-Alert warning at 16:20 to residents across Botoșani county, alerting them to the potential danger of falling aerial objects after tracking the drone over the locality of Știubieni.

Search crews subsequently located a crashed flying object across the county border in Suceava, where the wreckage came down inside an agricultural cornfield in the village of Botoșenița Mare. The impact ignited a small field fire across the vegetation, which local emergency response teams extinguished without any civilian casualties, injuries, or structural damage to nearby dwellings.

Regional maritime and airspace safety

Military divers and naval units concluded the Sunday morning mission without incident, confirming that all standard explosive disposal procedures had been executed successfully at sea. The Ministry of National Defence noted that maritime surveillance and territorial monitoring remain active along both the Black Sea coastline and the northern borders. Commercial shipping and naval transit continued along regular corridors without restrictions, as Romanian defense authorities reported no remaining hazards in the waters off Constanța county following the neutralization of the floating wreckage.