Ryanair says planes should not fly over Belarus until there are guarantees they will not be tricked into landing, after UN investigators concluded that a bomb scare that led to a journalist’s arrest was a hoax.
A Ryanair jet was forced to land in Minsk last May after a supposed threat by Hamas terrorists, giving Belarusian police the chance to seize dissident blogger Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega.
In a report to be presented on Monday, investigators at the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation found the bomb threat was deliberately false.
The report said it took more than half an hour to clear the plane of passengers, with the pilot allowed to remain in the cockpit, despite the supposed urgency of the bomb scare.
Although the panel stopped short of blaming the Belarusian government for the hoax, it said Minsk had withheld crucial information such as email logs.
Western governments went further in accusing Belarus of staging a ruse, and the incident led to sanctions on Belarus including restrictions on its airlines.
Michael O’Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, told an investor call on Monday that Belarus should provide guarantees that what he called an “act of international piracy” would not be repeated.
“I think it is fundamental to the future of air travel that we do not have a repetition,” he said. “There should be no overflight of Belarus unless appropriate guarantees are obtained that this won't recur.”
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said the government’s failure to provide evidence was a sign of a cover-up.
She accused President Alexander Lukashenko’s government of arranging a “deliberate, pre-planned, cool-headed operation to arrest an opponent”.
But Mr Lukashenko also claimed vindication after the report did not find evidence of the Belarusian military ushering the Ryanair plane to the ground.
“They had to admit that Lukashenko did not open fire at the aircraft, did not scramble [a] fighter jet to force it to land,” state media quoted him as saying.
Copies of the report leaked to various media outlets revealed radio exchanges between pilots and the Minsk aircraft control tower, in which the crew sought clarification on the apparent threat.
Belarusian authorities claimed they had received an email from Hamas terrorists giving that month’s flare-up of the Israel-Palestine conflict as motivation, but were unable to provide details requested by the crew.
Later enquiries found that the email address in question had been set up only days before the emergency landing.
Once the plane had landed, passengers were taken off in small groups despite the apparent danger, although there were differing accounts of who was behind this.
Four inspectors spent 18 minutes apparently checking for a bomb, in a search later described as inadequate by the pilot. No explosives were found.
The pilot “stated that the search team was not thorough and omitted areas that would be covered under normal procedures”, the report said.
It concluded that since no bomb was found either in pre-departure screening in Athens or when the plane landed in Belarus and subsequently in Lithuania, the threat was a hoax.
The US Justice Department last week named two Belarusian officials accused of organising the plot.
Tensions are high in Eastern Europe as Belarus prepares for military drills with its ally, Russia, which is feared to be on the brink of invading Ukraine.
Both countries are under western sanctions, with Belarus punished over a disputed 2020 election and subsequent arrests of opposition figures, as well as its alleged orchestration of the migrant crisis at its border with the EU.
France’s Foreign Ministry said the ICAO report “sheds light on all the inconsistencies in the Belarusian version of the facts”.
“The Belarusian regime orchestrated the diversion of a civil plane for the sole reason of arresting an opposition journalist, Roman Protasevich,” it said.
From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
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Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Profile
Company name: Marefa Digital
Based: Dubai Multi Commodities Centre
Number of employees: seven
Sector: e-learning
Funding stage: Pre-seed funding of Dh1.5m in 2017 and an initial seed round of Dh2m in 2019
Investors: Friends and family
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
