European leaders are urging airlines to avoid Belarus after state-sponsored hijacking of Ryanair flight msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Western outrage has grown and the European Union has threatened more sanctions over the forced diversion of a plane to Belarus in order to arrest an opposition journalist.
The dramatic gambit apparently ordered by the country’s authoritarian president was denounced as state terrorism or sheer piracy.
Ryanair said Belarusian flight controllers told the crew there was a bomb threat against the plane as it was crossing through the country’s airspace and ordered it to land in the capital Minsk.
A Belarusian MiG-29 fighter jet was scrambled to escort the plane – in a brazen show of force by President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled with an iron fist for more than a quarter of a century.