PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - FR4978 ATH-VNO diverted, escorted to Minsk, alleged bomb threat – but was it?
Old 24th May 2021, 16:58
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ORAC
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Why nobody here is trying to compare this to a more or less similar incident:
Because it’s not similar - civil vs diplomatic flight operating under different rules….

The Ryanair flight was a civilian flight operating under the Warsaw Convention and was, it appears, hijacked (Russian and Belarusian agents on board and ATC saying there was a bomb threat), the flight was then intercepted diverted under military escort and forced to land in Belarus.

The agents on board who made the threats were not arrested and did not reboard aircraft. A passenger forcibly removed.

The Bolivian flight, in 2013, was a diplomatic flight operating under diplomatic rules requiring prior permission to enter the airspace of another country (RAF aircraft flying to Cyprus have to have prior permission from the French etc, otherwise they are turned back).

The flight in question was refused permission to enter French or Portuguese airspace. Th3 crew requested permission to land at Vienna in order to take on extra fuel in order to have enough to reroute. Permission was granted and th3 aircraft was inspected by customs and immigration when it landed. It was never intercepted and no one was removed from the aircraft.

No international laws or diplomatic treaties were broken.
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