UK orders British planes to avoid Belarusian airspace

The British government instructed its country's airlines on Monday to avoid Belarusian airspace and suspended the flight permit of its company Belevia, a day after Minsk diverted a flight to arrest an opponent. “Following the forced diversion of a Ryanair plane to Minsk yesterday, I have asked the civil aviation authority to ask airlines to avoid Belarusian airspace to maintain passenger safety.. I have also suspended Belavia's operating permit,” Transport Minister Grant Shapps announced on Twitter.

The Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, has expressed himself along the same lines, and has ordered that the Dutch airline KLM stop flying over Belarus after what happened.

A measure to which several countries such as Lithuania are joining. The Prosecutor's Office of that country also announced today the opening of a criminal investigation after the Belarusian authorities diverted a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius to the Minsk airport, an incident that it described as a “kidnapping” and to which the illegal disappearance of persons. After the plane landed in Minsk, the authorities detained the Belarusian dissident journalist Roman Protasevich, 26, and his girlfriend, the Russian Sofia Sapega, a student at a Lithuanian university.. Four other people, who could be Belarusian agents who were following the journalist from Athens, also did not continue the journey to Vilnius.

For its part, the Belarusian government on Monday expelled the Latvian ambassador to Belarus and all the staff of the country's legation after “insulting” the state flag in Riga by placing the red and white flag, a symbol of the opposition, in an international sporting event. place of the official, according to the official agency BELTA. “We cannot leave such provocative actions unanswered,” said Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makéi.

A French citizen explained to reporters last night upon arrival of the plane at Vilnius airport that Protasevich, sitting two rows in front of him, initially panicked when the pilot announced that the plane would land in Minsk.. “I was screaming and arguing with the flight attendants, saying no, they couldn't land. Afterwards, I was no longer afraid or angry,” explained the traveler in statements collected by the Lithuanian news portal 15min.. He added that the passengers had to stay for about seven hours in an area of the Minsk airport, where they had access to food and drink, but could not go to the bathroom.. Another traveler explained that he initially thought that the plane landing in Minsk was due to some problem with the device, although he later understood that this was not the real reason.

When Protasevich, sitting three rows from this passenger, heard the news that they were going to land in the Belarusian capital, he got up, opened the luggage rack, began to take things out of his bag that could contain information, such as his mobile and laptop, and gave them to his girlfriend, he added. At first the journalist was nervous, but when he realized there was no way to change anything, “he calmed down and accepted the situation,” he added.. Once on the ground, the passengers got off the plane and were put on a bus and he was able to see how they searched Protasevich's belongings, who was accompanied by a policeman in the vehicle and who was taken to the terminal by five or six other agents, he said. .

Several airlines announced a change in their flight routes in order to avoid Belarusian airspace. The Latvian airline Air Baltic specified that its flights from Riga to the Ukrainian city of Odessa and the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, will fly over Poland and Russia, respectively, to avoid Belarus. Meanwhile, the Hungarian airline Wizz Air will modify its route from the Ukrainian capital, kyiv, to Tallinn, that of Estonia. Lithuanian charter airline Avion Express, which flies from the Baltic countries to destinations in the Mediterranean, plans to do the same, local media reported.. A spokeswoman for the Latvian Civil Aviation authorities reported that the Latvian charter airline Smartlinx will also stop flying over Belarusian airspace.. The Ukrainian Presidency has also ordered the cessation of direct air links with Belarus and the overflight of the territory of this country from or to Ukraine.

For its part, the Swedish Transport Agency said today that Swedish airlines should consider avoiding Belarusian airspace after a Belarusian warplane intercepted the flight between Greece and Lithuania on which Roman Protasevich was traveling and forced him to land. in Minsk. “The Swedish Transport Agency encourages Swedish airlines to consider the situation as uncertain and therefore should avoid flying in Belarusian airspace,” it said in a statement, adding that the decision was in line with a recommendation from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.

The Belarusian version

The Belarusian authorities explained on Monday that the Ryanair flight was threatened in an email claimed to be from the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas, reports Afp.

“We, Hamas soldiers, demand that Israel cease fire on the Gaza sector. We demand that the European Union cease its support for Israel (…) if our demands are not met, a bomb will explode (on board the Ryanair plane) over Vilnius,” said the director of air transport at the Belarusian Ministry of Transport, claiming to read a Russian translation of a message received in English.

However, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum denied that his group had any knowledge or connection to what was said by Belarus.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel considers Belarus's reasons for forcing the plane to land “implausible”.

Incident at Minsk airport

The Minsk airport in Belarus reported on Monday that it had delayed the boarding of a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt for security reasons, after receiving a warning about a possible terrorist act from the Belarusian authorities.

“We are following the instructions of the local authorities who are re-registering the plane before departure and redoing the security checks on the passengers,” a Lufthansa spokesman explained, specifying that it is about flight LH1487.. The flight has finally taken off after carrying out these checks.

Following the incident Germany’s Lufthansa has announced that it is “suspending its operations” in Belarusian airspace.
“Due to the dynamics of the current situation, we are suspending operations in Belarusian airspace for the time being,” the company said in a statement sent to AFP.