This day last week, Ryanair flight FR4978 from Athens to Vilnius in Lithuania was forced to divert by Belarusian authorities due to a bomb threat, which subsequently turned out to be a false alarm. The aircraft made a safe landed in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, however once parked two passengers, Roman Protassevitch, a 26 years old Belarusian blogger and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega were arrested by Belarusian authorities.
The incident on Sunday, May 23th was condemned internationally with the Chief Executive of the Ryanair Group later describing the incident as a “state-sponsored hijack.” While the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen said this was “outrageous and illegal behaviour of the regime in Belarus.” Belarusian officials have yet to state the reason for the arrests of two passengers, but it could be related to the fact that in recent years Mr Protassevitch has inspired popular protest against the dictatorial regime of President Lukashenko.
One week on from this incident, political fallout continues, with the Biden administration will impose sanctions “on members of the Lukashenko regime, its support network, and those who support corruption, human rights abuses, and attacks on democracy.” The US will also suspend its 2019 US-Belarus air services agreement. The State Department has also raised the alert to the highest level, urging US citizens not to travel to Belarus, while the FAA has asked American-based carriers to exercise extreme caution when considering flying over Belarusian airspace.
Meanwhile, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has launched a full investigation into the incident involving a Ryanair Boeing 737-800 aircraft, registered SP-RSM. In its statement, ICAO’s investigation plans to establish “the facts of what happened, and of understanding whether there had been any breach by any ICAO Member State of international aviation law., including the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention) and its Annexes.”
The hijacking of a civilian aircraft and the arrest of two passengers was sharply criticised by the international community. The European Council has already called on “all EU-based carriers to avoid overflights of Belarus.” While earlier this week, the European Council stated that it would be adopting “the necessary measures” which would effectively ban Belarusian airlines, such as Belavia from flying over EU airspace and prevent the carrier from accessing EU airports.
Russia has welcomed the ICAO investigation, according to a spokesperson for President Putin, Dmitri Peskov. However, during the week permits to enter Russian airspace were denied to some European airlines who had made modified flight plans to bypass Belarus, as established by the European Council. Nevertheless, the Russian government assured that the lack of access permits is due to “technical reasons” because of the time needed to approve new flight plans.
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Source: https://aeronewsx.com/political-fallout-continues-following-hijacked-flight-over-belarus/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=political-fallout-continues-following-hijacked-flight-over-belarus
