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LAST UPDATE | 23 May 2021
THE RYANAIR FLIGHT that was diverted to Minsk today by Belarus authorities has been allowed to continue towards Lithuania, the European Commission said.
“Great news for everyone, especially the families and friends of people onboard,” said transport commissioner Adina Valean.
The commissioner did not say whether all of those who had been on board the flight had been allowed to depart when it was allowed to leave.
Belarusian opposition activist Roman Protasevich was detained by Belarus authorities when the flight, originally from Athens to Vilnius, was diverted to Minsk.
A statement from Minsk airport said the aircraft had had to make an emergency landing following a bomb scare.
European leaders reacted with fury, demanding Belarus allow all the passengers to leave.
“The Ryanair flight took off just now from Minsk bound for Vilnius,” Valean wrote.
Protasevich was aboard a Ryanair flight from Athens to the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, which made an emergency landing following a bomb scare, TASS news agency reported citing the press service of Minsk airport.
The move came amid an intensifying crackdown following historic demonstrations that gripped the ex-Soviet country after a disputed presidential election last year.
“The plane was checked, no bomb was found and all passengers were sent for another security search,” Nexta said. “Among them was… Nexta journalist Roman Protasevich. He was detained.”
Nexta Live and its sister channel Nexta — with close to 2 million subscribers on the Telegram messenger — are prominent voices of the Belarus opposition and helped mobilise protesters.
It added that Protasevich said he was followed before boarding the flight.
The Belarusian Interior Ministry initially confirmed the detention on Telegram, but the post was later deleted.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said the reports are “extremely worrying” and that Ireland is in contact with Ryanair and the EU.
Top European Union officials warned Belarus that it would be held responsible for the fate of the flight diverted to Minsk and demanded all passengers be released.
“We hold the government of Belarus responsible for the security of all passengers and the aircraft,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell tweeted.
“ALL passengers must be able to continue their travel immediately,” he said.
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen echoed this call.
“ALL passengers must be able to continue their travel to Vilnius immediately and their safety ensured,” she said, in a separate tweet.
She warned: “Any violation of international air transport rules must bear consequences.”
The president of the European Council Charles Michel, who will host a summit of the 27 EU national leaders on Monday, also spoke out.
“An ICAO investigation of the incident will be essential,” he declared, referring to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, a UN agency.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda on Twitter called the incident an “unprecedented event” and said that the Belarus “regime is behind the abhorrent action”.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki branded the arrest as an “act of state terrorism”.
“I condemn in the strongest terms the detention of Roman Protasevich by Belarusian authorities, after a Ryanair passenger aircraft was hijacked. This is a reprehensible act of state terrorism,” he said.
Similar statements have also been made by French and German officials.
Last year, 26-year old Protasevich and Nexta founder Stepan Putilo, 22, were added to Belarus’s list of “individuals involved in terrorist activity”.
The two bloggers — who live in Poland — were added to the list based on earlier charges of causing mass unrest, an offence that can lead to up to 15 years of imprisonment.
Belarus had also labelled the Nexta Telegram channels and its logo “extremist” and ordered it blocked.
The Telegram channel of Lukashenko’s press service said the president gave the order to turn the flight around. It added that he also ordered a Mig-29 fighter jet to accompany the aircraft.
“It is absolutely obvious that this is an operation of secret services to capture the plane in order to detain activist and blogger Roman Protasevich,” exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said on Telegram.
The opposition believes that Tikhanovskaya, who fled to neighbouring Lithuania after the election, was the true winner of last year’s presidential vote.
Both Tikhanovskaya and Nexta say that Protasevich could face the death penalty in Belarus.
A member of the Nexta team, Tadeusz Giczan, said on Twitter that representatives of the Belarusian security agency were on the flight with Protasevich.
“Then when the plane had entered Belarus airspace, the KGB officers initiated a fight with the Ryanair crew insisting there’s an IED onboard,” he said.
A spokeswoman for state company “Lithuanian airports”, Lina Beisine, told AFP that Minsk airport said the flight was redirected “due to a conflict between a member of the crew and the passengers”.
There was no immediate reaction from Ryanair.
The European Union and the United States have sanctioned Lukashenko and dozens of officials and businessmen tied to his regime with asset freezes and visa bans.
The historic Belarus protests, which left at least four people dead, have now subsided, but journalists and activists continue to receive prison sentences in the aftermath.
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Is this not a hijacking?
@Sequoia: 100%
@Sequoia: absolutely
@Sequoia: Fighter jet forced it down, air piracy.
@Sequoia: A state sponsored hijack!
That was a very convenient bomb scare.
@John Sleator: Awful Stuff. It would remind you of the treatment of Assange or Tommy Robinson.
@bread of heaven: Tommy Robinson ?? lol…
@bread of heaven: Mr Yaxley Lennon is hardly comparable to Assange or this gentleman. Remember he threatened the Irish community in Luton for singing IRA songs in pubs.
@Tommy Roche: lol Tommy.
Surely you mean Stephen Yaxley-Lennon,
Isn’t it odd he changed his name just so he could should vile abuse at people
@bread of heaven: Go away out of it you chancer. Tommy Robinson has never been pulled off a plane for being an opposition blogger. He’s been arrested for assault. contempt of court and other things. But never has he been arrested for anything remotely close to this.
@bread of heaven: Evo Morales plane was pulled down too in 2013 by the EU as they thought Snowden was on it. If the shoe was on the other foot there would have been hell to pay.
@bread of heaven: Stick to Welsh rugby.
@bread of heaven: you mean Robinson the racist?? Lol
That’s a state sponsored hijack. Let’s see how our membership of the security Council works out now.
@John Mulligan: nothing’s gonna happen, Lukash is a Putin wannabe n has his protection. What can council do against Putin? The bigger picture is there is a prep goin on for Russia Belarus “unification”. Arrested guy must be really important
@John Mulligan: This was my thought too. It’s not that well known that the KGB survived in Belarus. They evidently orchestrated this planes “hijacking” knowing he was onboard in order that they could ‘arrest’ him in their territory. This is state sponsored terrorism. While most nations will condemn it, at best Russia will just tut tut but do nothing.
@oMaraTpe: Belarus the next step.
Think of the fear of the other passengers, think what the crew must have being going through. Even the airline protocols called into action during this falsified event just to get someone they wanted and which mo doubt they will kill.
@Peter O Donnell: You don’t stick your neck out in Russia or China, Toe the line or pay the price!!
@John Mc Donagh: Belarus, another Belt & Road country for the CCP.
@Paul Cunningham: Not true, Belarus is very much in the Russosphere and close to Moscow than Beijing.
The plane was hijacked
You really need to change the headline and state exactly what this is. The president ordered a bomb scare against the aircraft so it would land. Shocking behaviour.
A blatant act of state sponsored terrorism.The EU , and UN must take immediate and decisive action.
@John Costello: the EU and UN are useless organisations with little or no power as was witnessed over the years.
@John Costello: like what….ban the importation of snails from Belarus? Just like the invasion of Crimea, the western “powers” will huff and puff and do diddly squat as per usual. The only language the likes of Lukashenko understand is force. A few meaningless sanctions will be imposed to make us all feel better.
Stop all flights from Belarus landing in the EU !! Might put some manners on Lukashenko !!
@JAMES KELLY: Surely that would only imprison campaigners within their own country? Every democracy needs its Wild Geese.
Maybe the honorary consul (Irish man)for Belarus would care to confirm what happened. And if not maybe he should finally consider his position
I hope the pilots protected the cockpit voice recorder before the authorities got on board. It will contain important information on how it all unfolded. No doubt the air traffic control recorders will be “missing”.
This was a state sponsored hijacking of an Irish registered aircraft. No two ways about it.
@a: you do realise it’s not an Irish aircraft. Ryanair have been de listing Irish aircraft and moving to cheaper countries such as Poland or tax havens such as Malta to register aircraft and set up subsidiary airlines as part of its union busting, social dumping tactics and evading labour laws over the last 5 or 6 years.
@Peter O Donnell: yeah i get that you just want to use this as a chance to rant and whinge about Ryanair – but you don’t get to make up your own facts- ryanair moved to recognise unions for the first time in its history in recent years and now operates a fleet over 450 planes and have another couple hundred on order – a great irish business success story to take on huge established european airlines around europe and grow to be so large – but hey let’s dump all the usual irish begrudgery on an occasion where they did literally nothing wrong here. FFS
Stick heavy sanctions on Belarus. The EU accounts for a quarter of all Belarussian exports. This is state-sponsored terrorism.
The west won’t do anything…
@MrJohne: This is one for Ursula to deal with as usual it will be a bit of huffing & puffing before a dose of Alzheimer’s sets in & everyone forgets about it, if you fall out with Belarus you fall out with Putin & there’s too much to lose with gas pipelines for this to be allowed to get too heated. They wouldn’t have hijacked an American or Chinese plane.
@MrJohne: they will.
@Joe Thorpe: please do not use a horrendous disease to make your point
So telegram is a good messaging app now? Most of your stories seem to attack telegram as being useful for right wing groups.
@Seán C: Because it is.
Kidnapping
Hijack by another name.
Lukoshenko is playing hardball. Maybe he is feeling wobbly.
They should probably divert European flights around Belarus for the foreseeable future.
Pilot will get a bollockin for being late.
@Murph11: but will be congratulated for keeping the weight of the plane down so it’s 50/50.
“The flight path, visible on the Flightradar24 website, suggests the plane was actually nearer to Vilnius than Minsk when it turned.” (BBC)
So why didn’t the pilot continue to Vilnius if it was the closest airport in an emergency?
@Nomis Andrews: because it was followed by MIG29
@Nomis Andrews: Depends if the plane was in Belarussian airspace or Lithuanian airspace when it was intercepted, I would guess it was the former so it would be diverted to the nearest Belarussian Airport
@Nomis Andrews: The reported Mig 29 flying beside it was probably enough to convince the pilot to make the detour.
@Dmitry Sullivan O: Indeed. They might as well have been in the cockpit holding a gun to the pilots head.
@Nomis Andrews: the pilots do what aircontrol told them to do. Obviously you don’t go to the closest airport in the event of bomb, you go to the airport that can handle an explosion.
The militar plane following is the normal protocol in these situations.
I wouldn’t be surprised that it turns up the bloggers (activists for ones and mass manipulators for others) caused their own fate. From unknown to be known worldwide. Stinks
Full EU sanctions immediately. Cripple them. Zero trade with EU and zero EU flights to Minsk. Don’t sell them a bottle of water. Personal sanctions and asset freezing against all the government members.
@Paul Whitehead: Added to a full embargo of All goods and services, freeze all assets and accounts across the EU and request that all allied countries do the same. Plus travel ban on every known member of the regime to or via any EU country.
How does one go about orchestrating a fake bomb scare in such a way that the plane ends up being diverted to Minsk specifically?!?! Don’t get me wrong, it’s obviously what happened, I don’t doubt it for a minute but I’m genuinely curious how you do it. Poor guy.. I beg he knew, the moment he realised where they’re landing, that there was no bomb, I bet he knew it was all ‘for him’.
@Agnieszka Mickiewicz: Aircraft Control contacted the Captain, informed them of a security threat onboard. Ordered Captain to divert to Minsk. Backed up the Order with a fully armed MiG 29 Fighter Jet to “Escort” the plane to Minsk.
@Mick.: Jesus. That’s hijacking. I bet he knew once he spotted the jet then. I’m really disturbed by it, I didn’t think I could be shocked by Lukashenko’s actions but I’m really really disturbed by this.
@Agnieszka Mickiewicz: that’s the normal protocol in those cases. Eurocontrol is investigating how a plane in the air got an false alarm of bomb. Which was the origin airport? Within the EU?
Yes, poor lads from being completely unknown to be known worldwide. It seems very convenient
When do we begin air strikes?
@John O’Brien: they are preparing the attack kites in Baldonnel as we speak!
@John O’Brien: The Cavalry Corps are fuelling up the tank as we speak.
Barr them from the Eurovision
@Darren Walsh: They are already banned from Eurovision for entering a song which mocked the opposition demonstration which took place after the recent rigged election.
Michael will meet the plane in person when the flight arrives back in Dublin.
Everyone on the plane will be given a free token for a soft drink in Burger King
If this goes unanswered by the EU it means any flight to Asia or Australia is never going to be safe again as those flights overfly Siberia and may be forced down. Belarus had 4 agents onboard who forced the crew to declare an emergency and Belarus ATC ordered them to land in Minsk even though Vilnius was closer. They had a fighter jet escort them just to be sure of compliance. And why, so they could kidnap a young opposition journalist critical of a dictator in Belarus. He now faces 15 years to death penalty. EU and NATO need to grow a pair here or this Eastern emboldened aggression will continue. What next, nerve agents or radiological weapons used in Europe. Oh wait… That’s been done.
Nothing, absolutely nothing will happen as a reaction from EU. The detained guy will be sentenced to death and EU will just be worried about it as happened many times by now.
Is he an “activist” or a “journalist”? Seems to me they’re all the same nowadays.
It wasn’t convenient, it was MADE. that’s how communist countries operate.
Remember when European air space was closed to the president of Bolivias plane on the behest of the obomba administration, forced to land in Austria to search for Snowden,
What a despicable thing to do… the crime of kidnap, very country should stop all flights to and from Belarus. This man must be released.. it’s amazing how all these presidents are so running scared of the media. Unbelievable egomaniacs.
What if he has been detained for the fake alarm of bomb?
@Maria Quinn: You seem determined to try and deflect away from the Hijacking of a civilian plane by Belarus. Any particular reason for that?
@Maria Quinn: he wasn’t-the fake bomb was made up by Belarus to get him to Minsk. Despicable evil and illegitimate regime.
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