Anonymous tour of Balkans by Piper
 

Rather surprised not to have seen this story crop up on here yet: https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/3...ht-to-bulgaria The occupants had disappeared from the plane, which landed at a disused airfield, by the time the authorities got there.
This reads like the plot of John Le Carré novel (specifically, The Honourable Schoolboy - the plane was even misidentified as a Beechcraft at first!).
Is this kind of event common? Is it in effect relatively easy to wander around European airspace anonymously in a light aircraft without being bothered?

I suppose the story of one Mathias Rust is known to you? Apart from that madman's episode, I heard stories of smuggling illegal cigarettes by light planes, every now and so often a wreck would be found, sometimes burned out. Cigarettes are less lucrative than cocaine, though, as yet there's no stories of HS125's or Gulfstream I's shot or forced down by the air force, and found abandoned and burned out somewhere in the jungle - the "narcojet" phenomenon is limited to Latin America, at least for now.

I suppose it depends on your definition of being bothered! Being bounced by a couple of fast jets would bother me! But this guy obviously wasn't bothered!

Yes, almost daily

Two other threads:

https://www.pprune.org/spectators-ba...2-06-08-a.html

https://www.pprune.org/accidents-clo...-lands-bg.html

Fly an ultralight then - the jets cannot go so slow :)
There are stories however of ultralights intercepted by Belgian Air Force helicopters ;)