Yahoo Finance Diversion of Ryanair flight breached ‘all international aviation rules,’ says boss Michael O’Leary
The diversion of a Ryanair flight to Belarus allowing a prominent critic to be arrested, was a “premeditated breach of all the international aviation rules”, according to the airline’s boss Michael O’Leary.
Ryanair flight FR4978 from Greece to Lithuania on May 23 changed course to head for the Belarus capital Minsk escorted by a MiG fighter jet.
The Foreign Office has previously said the plane was grounded “on the basis of a false bomb scare” in order to arrest an opposition journalist, Roman Protasevich.
Giving evidence to the Transport Select Committee on Tuesday, Mr O’Leary said the flight crew were told by Minsk air traffic control that they had received “a credible threat that if the aircraft entered Lithuanian air space, or attempted to land at Vilnius airport, that a bomb on board would be detonated”.
He explained the captain “repeatedly” asked Minsk ATC to provide an open line of communication back to Ryanair’s operations control centre in Warsaw, but was told: “Ryanair weren’t answering the phone”, which was “completely untrue”.
Mr O’Leary said diverted Ryanair flights in that location would normally land in Poland and the other Baltic states, but the captain was put under “considerable pressure” to land in Minsk.
“He wasn’t instructed to do so, but he wasn’t left with any great alternatives,” he told the committee.
He added: “This was clearly a premeditated breach of all the international aviation rules, regulations, safety.
“An aircraft was brought down under false pretences using Minsk ATC, and it seems clear that certainly two passengers were removed against their will and forcibly detained.”
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