Belarus forces Ryanair plane to divert NO GENERAL POLITICS MOD WARNING POST 1

23-05-2021 9:50pm

From Aviation Herald:

Incident: Ryanair Sun B738 near Minsk on May 23rd 2021, Greece calls diversion states hijack
By Simon Hradecky, created Sunday, May 23rd 2021 20:33Z, last updated Sunday, May 23rd 2021 20:36Z
A Ryanair Sun Boeing 737-800, registration SP-RSM performing flight FR-4978 from Athens (Greece) to Vilnius (Lithuania), was enroute a FL390 about 45nm south of Vilnius still in Belarus Airspace, when the aircraft diverted to Minsk (Belarus), located about 90nm east of their present position, where the aircraft landed safely about 25 minutes later.

The aircraft remained on the ground in Minsk for about 7 hours, then continued the flight, climbed to FL090 enroute and reached Vilnus with a delay of 8.5 hours.

The circumstances of the diversion are entirely unclear. No official confirmation is available so far, also not from Ryanair, how many passengers boarded the aircraft in Athens and how many disembarked in Vilnius (and whether there had been any passenger left behind in Minsk and how many).

There are claims that Mig29 fighter aircraft may have been dispatched to intercept and force the Boeing to Minsk.

Belarus Opposition claims one of their activitists and his fiancee have been detained in Minsk, in addition four Russians did not continue their journey to Vilnius.

Sources in Belarus claim all passengers continued on to Vilnius.

Other sources in Belarus and Russia claim, the opposition activist has been detained in Minsk.

Greece's foreign Minister rated the occurrence a states hijack, the aircraft has been hijacked by Belarus. According to the Greek Foreign Ministry 171 passengers departed Athens. The Greek Foreign Ministry stated further: "We condemn the illegal arrest of the Belarusian activist Roman Protasevich, who is threatened with the death penalty. Mr Protasevich was part of a delegation led by Belarussian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who recently attended the Delphi Forum."

Lithuania's Prime Minister said: "What happened today is an attack not only on Lithuania. This is the act of state terrorism directed against the security of citizens of the EU and other countries."

ICAO voiced concern about the "forced landing" stating that this might be in contravention of the Chicago convention.

Political leaders around the EU and its members voice concern about this "forced landing" and call for action.

The president of the European Commission said: "It is utterly unacceptable to force Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius to land in Minsk. ALL passengers must be able to continue their travel to Vilnius immediately and their safety ensured. Any violation of international air transport rules must bear consequences."

https://avherald.com/h?article=4e7d7208&opt=1

STB. · 23-05-2021 9:54pm

Cloudio9 wrote: »

It’s an Irish airline. If anyone wants to argue it’s Polish it’s like trying to argue half of Alitalia’s planes are Irish because they fly on EI registrations or the Metrojet A321 that was blown up was Irish instead of Russian.

It really doesn't matter whether the plane is registered in Poland or Ireland, both are members of the EU.

The parent company and carrier is Irish. The flight between two European capitals was intercepted and accompanied by a MIG to Minsk.

I'd say the cabin recordings are enlightening. Ryanair's press statement is a disgrace. They are responsible for ALL pax.

josip · 23-05-2021 9:57pm

Strumms wrote: »

It’s the principle for a start..while they are not adversely affected you still don’t let them take the piss, more then they are..

And obviously while not a deterrent but if you roll over you’ll get fücked, so don’t...

bill for fuel, overtime, APU, any other expenses,

To me, that's legitimising what the Belarussians did.
"As long as you cover our costs, we don't mind too much"

Strumms · 23-05-2021 9:59pm

Ryanair statement is a political one, a ‘ nothing to see here damage limitation statement more then to inform.

Cunning Stunt · 23-05-2021 10:01pm

why didnt Ryanair state anything about the fact that they departed again minus some passengers? They say nothing in their statement about what actually happened

harmless · 23-05-2021 10:04pm

Cunning Stunt wrote: »

why didnt Ryanair state anything about the fact that they departed again minus some passengers? They say nothing in their statement about what actually happened

Why do Ryainair claim Minsk was the closest airport when the plane was intercepted?

Do they think people can't lookup this info themselves?

Nijmegen · 23-05-2021 10:09pm

The ryanair statement is, unless they are being coached by the government to keep schtum, seemingly craven. Not mentioning that the plane has made it to Vilnius minus at least one politically sensitive passenger.

You’d wonder if it’s craven commercialism - after all, they want routes to countries like Belarus, Russia and other Putin orbit localities. So say nothing and don’t kick up.

You’d hope that in the fullness of time it will emerge rather that they were asked to keep quiet while the diplomats work it out, although given senior European politicians are being quite up front about it you’d wonder why ryanair would be coached to stay quiet.

plodder · 23-05-2021 10:12pm

harmless wrote: »

https://twitter.com/RyanairPress/status/1396543331878981632

Nothing untoward found, so I take it no passenger was removed from the plane in Minsk.

Strange statement from Ryanair. The FR 24 track clearly shows Vilnius was the closest airport.

JustAThought · 23-05-2021 10:14pm

harmless wrote: »

https://twitter.com/RyanairPress/status/1396543331878981632

Nothing untoward found, so I take it no passenger was removed from the plane in Minsk.

I think the statement said ‘passengers were offloaded for security reasons” - looking at the front page image of a terrified Protasevitch being lead off by two heavily armed agents/security forces should fill in the missing PR blanks for you.

This because of his political blogging.

And this in the week the Irish Government are yet again silently trying frantically to bring in leglislation to control social media. Again.

No word from RTE Pravda on this ironic piece of parallel activity.

And while CNN have Biden on a loop saying no american journalists email or phone should again be tapped without a warrant this dirty little undemocratic practice is STILL not only allowed by approved by our Irish Government.

Bitter irony much.
What does Coveney have to say about that? Total radio silence. Just what he wants.

One statement for abducted and repressed foreign journalists and a totally different set of rules they don’t even allow be applied to serial killers for our own Irish journalists.

josip · 23-05-2021 10:18pm

Sorry, it doesn't make sense to me that the captain diverted to Minsk.
At the time that they diverted they were twice as close to Vilnius as Minsk and around 30km from the Lithuanian border.

That's around 2-3 minutes flight time.
Did the captain not question the veracity of the bomb on board ruse if they were being asked to divert to an airport further away.
Assuming that he knew/suspected they were being asked to divert under false pretenses, did he really believe that they would be shot down if they didn't divert in that 2-3 minute time frame?

JohnC. · 23-05-2021 10:22pm

josip wrote: »

Sorry, it doesn't make sense to me that the captain diverted to Minsk.
At the time that they diverted they were twice as close to Vilnius as Minsk and around 30km from the Lithuanian border.

That's around 2-3 minutes flight time.
Did the captain not question the veracity of the bomb on board ruse if they were being asked to divert to an airport further away.
Assuming that he knew/suspected they were being asked to divert under false pretenses, did he really believe that they would be shot down if they didn't divert in that 2-3 minute time frame?

Can you be sure they wouldn’t? If you were the captain, would you be making that bet with everyone’s lives? While not an airliner, they have shot down civilians before. And big brother Russia essentially got away with shooting down an airliner.

STB. · 23-05-2021 10:23pm

Cunning Stunt wrote: »

why didnt Ryanair state anything about the fact that they departed again minus some passengers? They say nothing in their statement about what actually happened

Indeed.

Nothing about the severity of the instruction from Belarusian ATC or the fighter jet hovering on the wing of the captains side of the cockpit to coerce him from entering fast approaching Lithuanian airspace and divert the plane to an airport double the distance within Belarus.

What an unbelievable position to be put in.

Ryanair's statement is disgraceful. They are missing 2 of their passengers having had their flight intercepted because they traveled through Belarusian airspace.

harmless · 23-05-2021 10:24pm

Perhaps the pilot did question it but probably not for too long when a fighter jet was signaling him to follow.

Nijmegen · 23-05-2021 10:24pm

josip wrote: »

Sorry, it doesn't make sense to me that the captain diverted to Minsk.
At the time that they diverted they were twice as close to Vilnius as Minsk and around 30km from the Lithuanian border.

That's around 2-3 minutes flight time.
Did the captain not question the veracity of the bomb on board ruse if they were being asked to divert to an airport further away.
Assuming that he knew/suspected they were being asked to divert under false pretenses, did he really believe that they would be shot down if they didn't divert in that 2-3 minute time frame?

I wouldn’t be inclined to do back seat driving on this - firstly we don’t know all the facts. Are the stories about 4 intelligence agents onboard kicking up true? What did the ATC tell them to do? Was there actually a MiG, was it armed, and what if anything did it do to convince them to make the turn? And in a really simple sense, aren’t you supposed to follow the orders from the ground as a pilot, if you have no reason to believe they’re unlawful? Loads to unpick there. The line on the map probably doesn’t tell a much more fraught story in the air.

Polar101 · 23-05-2021 10:27pm

"Nearest airport Minsk"

Trying not to make any Ryanair airport jokes, but that's a really weak statement. I think they need to comment whether all passengers made it to Vilnius, or if they feel it's all right that their planes get diverted and some passengers are removed.

STB. · 23-05-2021 10:31pm

Nijmegen wrote: »

I wouldn’t be inclined to do back seat driving on this - firstly we don’t know all the facts. Are the stories about 4 intelligence agents onboard kicking up true? What did the ATC tell them to do? Was there actually a MiG, was it armed, and what if anything did it do to convince them to make the turn? And in a really simple sense, aren’t you supposed to follow the orders from the ground as a pilot, if you have no reason to believe they’re unlawful? Loads to unpick there. The line on the map probably doesn’t tell a much more fraught story in the air.

We do know the facts.

It was a "forced" instruction to land the plane within Belarus. As has been tweeted by the Lithuanian Prime Minister, the Irish Foreign Affairs & Defence Minister, and the President of the EU.

https://twitter.com/vonderleyen/status/1396487685011816449

https://twitter.com/simoncoveney/status/1396551162602602496

https://twitter.com/IngridaSimonyte/status/1396476694316425223

Nijmegen · 23-05-2021 10:36pm

STB. wrote: »

We do know the facts.

It was a "forced" instruction to land the plane within Belarus. As has been tweeted by the Lithuanian Prime Minister, the Irish Foreign Affairs & Defence Minister, and the President of the EU.

https://twitter.com/vonderleyen/status/1396487685011816449

https://twitter.com/simoncoveney/status/1396551162602602496

https://twitter.com/IngridaSimonyte/status/1396476694316425223

Right - sorry I was responding to the specific query why the pilots would land in Minsk rather than continue the short distance to Vilnius. What I meant was, the orders they were given, the nature of what was happening onboard, and the nature of what the MiG was or wasn’t up to, is still unknown to us. So I’d give the pilots the benefit of doing what seemed best at the time rather than suggesting they should have decided they were in Air Force One and pushed on. They likely didn’t even know or suspect there would be someone onboard the authorities in Minsk wanted. To them it probably seemed like the ground calling up a bomb threat and ordering them down, and maybe coercing them to do so.

Larbre34 · 23-05-2021 10:39pm

The President of Lithuania says they knew it was a MiG-29 and a Mi-24 Hind gunship. They are a NATO nation, with very sophisticated primary radar courtesy of their major allies, keeping an eye on Russia. You can take it that report is correct.

Also, Ryanair getting some stick, I'm sure they can be blamed for their pilots complying with an air security warning, as per protocols. The arrest off the flight is also despicable, but were the crew meant to resist Belarusian security services?

This wasn't a terrorist hijack, the pilots role is different. State terrorism yes, but the pilots weren't to know that they were the victim of a massive deception at that moment.

23-05-2021 10:41pm

Imagine being that journalist now.

Nijmegen · 23-05-2021 10:46pm

Larbre34 wrote: »

The President of Lithuania says they knew it was a MiG-29 and a Mi-24 Hind gunship. They are a NATO nation, with very sophisticated primary radar courtesy of their major allies, keeping an eye on Russia. You can take it that report is correct.

Also, Ryanair getting some stick, I'm sure they can be blamed for their pilots complying with an air security warning, as per protocols. The arrest off the flight is also despicable, but were the crew meant to resist Belarusian security services?

This wasn't a terrorist hijack, the pilots role is different. State terrorism yes, but the pilots weren't to know that they were the victim of a massive deception at that moment.

I reckon more of the flak is going ryanair plc’s way with regard to their statement on the matter, which smacks of not wanting to get shut out of any markets in the near future.

Jack1985 · 23-05-2021 10:51pm

Nijmegen wrote: »

Was there actually a MiG, was it armed...

https://twitter.com/TadeuszGiczan/status/1396484882637983744?s=20

The BBC ran the above, seem's confirmed. A Dictator in Eastern Europe lost their minds today.

harmless · 23-05-2021 10:55pm

The statement from Ryanair does not reflect that of the European Commission, which is the truth?

https://twitter.com/vonderleyen/status/1396566441370001413

Nijmegen · 23-05-2021 10:56pm

Jack1985 wrote: »

https://twitter.com/TadeuszGiczan/status/1396484882637983744?s=20

The BBC ran the above, seem's confirmed. A Dictator in Eastern Europe lost their minds today.

They obviously don’t think there’ll be much consequence. Or are doing it by proxy to see if there will be much consequence. I mean, shooting down an airliner over Ukraine, heck, invading (sorry, little green men doing, err, stuff in) Ukraine, etc etc etc, without real and lasting consequence. There’s a reason the people in the Baltic states don’t take their freedom for granted. And that’s just what goes on in E Europe, not to get into the tourists visiting places like the UK.

The EU response so far has been tepid, some words like “concerned” thrown around. We’ll see if there’s actually a real consequence to follow.

Larbre34 · 23-05-2021 10:56pm

Nijmegen wrote: »

I reckon more of the flak is going ryanair plc’s way with regard to their statement on the matter, which smacks of not wanting to get shut out of any markets in the near future.

I imagine they are sticking to the facts, ahead of some very serious trouble that'll be dished out.

I must say I don't take that undertone from the statement as you do and I've no particular affection for Ryanair.

In any case, what market would they be shut out of, Belarus? Russia? To the best of my knowledge, they don't fly to either.

Nijmegen · 23-05-2021 10:58pm

Larbre34 wrote: »

I imagine they are sticking to the facts, ahead of some very serious trouble that'll be dished out.

I must say I don't take that undertone from the statement as you do and I've no particular affection for Ryanair.

In any case, what market would they be shut out of, Belarus? Russia? To the best of my knowledge, they don't fly to either.

Not sure if the pandemic put a halt to it but they certainly planned to. https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2019/1225/1103032-st-petersburg/

I think if various governments are calling it, you can afford to call it also re the pax being taken off if nothing else. They’ve basically made no mention of losing a passenger en route.

robinph · 23-05-2021 10:59pm

I'd say that the Ryanair statement is quite deliberately saying nothing in particular. It's not Ryanair who are going to be responding to this action. They just need to leave any response to the various countries politicians to deal with, so best to say nothing that might make any political response tomorrow more difficult.

Ryanair can't impose sanctions, freeze Bank accounts, block Belarus flights or do anything in response. It's out of their hands.

plodder · 23-05-2021 10:59pm

Polar101 wrote: »

"Nearest airport Minsk"

Trying not to make any Ryanair airport jokes, but that's a really weak statement. I think they need to comment whether all passengers made it to Vilnius, or if they feel it's all right that their planes get diverted and some passengers are removed.

I think they should have said "instructed to divert to Minsk". Saying "instructed to divert to nearest airport Minsk" makes it look like they are colluding in the lie.

Jack1985 · 23-05-2021 11:02pm

Nijmegen wrote: »

They obviously don’t think there’ll be much consequence. Or are doing it by proxy to see if there will be much consequence. I mean, shooting down an airliner over Ukraine, heck, invading (sorry, little green men doing, err, stuff in) Ukraine, etc etc etc, without real and lasting consequence. There’s a reason the people in the Baltic states don’t take their freedom for granted. And that’s just what goes on in E Europe, not to get into the tourists visiting places like the UK.

The EU response so far has been tepid, some words like “concerned” thrown around. We’ll see if there’s actually a real consequence to follow.

Couldn't agree more with the bulk, ICAO should at least remove International status of airports in Belarus as safe overflight can't be guaranteed as proven today. That's before State Regulators even give their own take which will come shortly.

Larbre34 · 23-05-2021 11:15pm

I think this act will be Lukashenko's breakway Super League moment.

I think he has roused something of a sleeping giant and that he will lose control of events and go the way of Viktor Yanukovych quite soon.

Jack1985 · 23-05-2021 11:17pm

Footage of SP-RSM arriving safely in Vilnius earlier this evening;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twxx-_MP7OQ

Belarus forces Ryanair plane to divert *NO GENERAL POLITICS* *MOD WARNING POST 1*

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Belarus forces Ryanair plane to divert NO GENERAL POLITICS MOD WARNING POST 1