The captain of the Ryanair plane intercepted by a Belarusian warplane and forced to land in Minsk after what turned out to be a false bomb threat had little choice but to comply, aviation experts and pilots said.
By Reuters Staff
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WARSAW, May 23 (Reuters) - Poland’s prime minister on Sunday condemned the detention of Belarusian opposition activist Roman Protasevich and called on the European Union to discuss sanctions against Belarus.
“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,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Twitter.
He added that he had asked the European Council’s president to discuss immediate sanctions against Belarus during a meeting scheduled for Monday.
“The sanctions should primarily apply to air traffic on the territory of Belarus and a flight ban for Belarusian airlines,” Morawiecki told state news agency PAP.
6 Min Read
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Belarusian authorities scrambled a fighter jet and flagged what turned out to be a false bomb alert to force a Ryanair plane to land on Sunday and then detained an opposition-minded journalist who was on board, drawing criticism from across Europe.
Opposition blogger and activist Roman Protasevich, who is accused of participating in an unsanctioned protest at the Kuropaty preserve, arrives for a court hearing in Minsk, Belarus April 10, 2017. Picture taken April 10, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer
In the dramatic incident, described by one EU leader as a hijacking, a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet escorted a Ryanair-operated passenger plane flying from Athens to Lithuania. The plane was suddenly diverted to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where authorities detained journalist Roman Protasevich.
6 Min Read
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Belarusian authorities scrambled a fighter jet and flagged what turned out to be a false bomb alert to force a Ryanair plane to land on Sunday and then detained an opposition-minded journalist who was on board, drawing criticism from across Europe.
Opposition blogger and activist Roman Protasevich, who is accused of participating in an unsanctioned protest at the Kuropaty preserve, arrives for a court hearing in Minsk, Belarus April 10, 2017. Picture taken April 10, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer
In the dramatic incident, described by one EU leader as a hijacking, a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet escorted a Ryanair-operated passenger plane flying from Athens to Lithuania. The plane was suddenly diverted to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where authorities detained journalist Roman Protasevich.
Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya called on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to investigate Belarus after it diverted a Ryanair plane, carrying an opposition activist, from Vilnius to the Belarusian capital of Minsk.