VILNIUS, May 23. A Ryanair flight flying from Athens to Vilnius has finally landed at the Vilnius airport after a forced landing in Minsk, Gabrielius Landsbergis said on Sunday. “The plane has landed at the Lithuanian capital’s airport,” he told journalists. There were some 170 passengers from 12 counties, including 90 Lithuanian nationals, onboard the plane.
Roman Protasevich, a co-founder of the Nexta Telegram channel, which had been recognized as extremist in Belarus, was among the passengers. He is wanted in Belarus and is living in Lithuania. The man was detained after the plane’s landing in Minsk.
According to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, the Belarusian authorities forced the plane to land in Minsk. He slammed the incident as an “act of state terrorism.”
Nauseda’s adviser Asta Skaisgiryte said it might have been an operation of Belarus’ special services geared to detain opposition activist Roman Protasevich. “It look very much like a KGB operation because they knew for sure who was onboard the plane,” she told journalists. According to the adviser, the Ryanair flight was escorted by a Belarusian MiG-29 fighter jet and a Mi-24 helicopter.
Belarus’ defense ministry later confirmed that a MiG-29 fighter jet was scrambled on Sunday to escort the Ryanair passenger plane that made emergency landing at Minsk’s airport. “After the polit of this civil aircraft (the Ryanair plane – TASS) decided to land at an alternate airport (Minsk-2) and turned the plane towards Minsk, it was decided to scramble a MiG-29 crew on duty from the Baranovichi airport (Brest region),” the ministry said on its Telegram channel, citing Andrei Gurtsevich, chief of the air operations and first deputy commander of Belarus air and air defense forces.
The Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius made an emergency landing at Minsk’s airport after a reported bomb threat. The plane landed safely. No bomb was found inside. A criminal case was opened in Beelarus.
Meanwhile, Lina Beisiene, a spokeswoman for Lietuvos oro uostai the operator of Lithuanian airports, said on Sunday that Lithuania’s aviation authorities had no information about any bombs onboard the plane. She said that the plane had made an emergency landing because of a conflict between a passenger and a crewmember. However, she disclosed no details.
Ryanair spokesperson told TASS later that the flight’s crew was instructed by the Belarusian air traffic controllers to divert its flight from Athens to Vilnius in Minsk. “The crew on a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius today (23 May) were notified by Belarus ATC of a potential security threat on board and were instructed to divert to the nearest airport, Minsk,” the spokesperson said, adding that “nothing untoward was found.”.
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