Forced landing in Belarus was 'state-sponsored hijacking': Ryanair

LONDON

The forced landing of a Ryanair passenger plane in Belarus was a “state-sponsored hijacking,” the airline’s CEO said on Monday.

“It appears the intent of the [Belarus] authorities was to remove a journalist and his travelling companion from the plane … we believe there were some KGB agents offloaded at the airport as well,” Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary told Irish radio station Newstalk.

“This was a case of state-sponsored hijacking … state-sponsored piracy. I can’t say much about it because the EU authorities and NATO are dealing with it at the moment.”

The Ryanair plane heading from Greece to Lithuania was diverted to Belarus on Sunday.

Citing a “bomb threat,” a Belarusian MiG-29 fighter jet was scrambled to escort the plane to the capital Minsk, where authorities detained Roman Protasevich, a journalist they said was wanted for his involvement in “terrorist incidents.”

“We’re debriefing our crew, who did a phenomenal job to get that aircraft and almost all the passengers out of Minsk after six hours,” said O’Leary.

The EU, NATO, the US, and the UK have strongly condemned the incident.

EU leaders are set to discuss a joint response against Belarus in a meeting being held in Brussels on Monday.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney also described the incident as “aviation piracy that’s state-sponsored.”

“There’s a European Council meeting starting this evening ... I think you will see decisions taken by the EU to increase the level of sanctions against Belarus, and perhaps to link that to aviation,” he said.

“I think if the EU doesn’t respond firmly and directly, then I think that will be seen by Belarus as weakness on behalf of the EU.”