A Lufthansa flight from Minsk got searched before takeoff today by authorities who claimed there might be some security threat. This looks like escalating.

Scandinavian airline SAS said they would stop using Belarusian air space, and Cyprus-registered Avia Solutions said its Lithuania-based airlines would follow suit.

Lithuania’s transport minister, Marius Skuodis, said Poland’s LOT and Hungarian airline Wizzair would also not use Belarusian air space and said all flights to and from Lithuanian airports must from midnight GMT avoid Belarusian air space.

here you go

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...us-2021-05-24/

Or perhaps he, unlike many on here, waited until he had more facts before speaking out. Having had time to get the story from the crew(s), he has now described this as "state sponsored hijacking"

Frequent_Flyer

Don’t you bother to provide a proof of what you just said about this guy being a criminal? I bet you will only find something similar to Mandela or Navalny case. Sure, they are criminals in the views of their criminal regimes.

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.

Surely the simple answer is for the EU to simply put Belarus on the banned list, ie ban all EW reg aircraft from EU airspace and ban all flights between EU and Belarus. Stop all overflights (inconvenient but will drive the message home). Hopefully ICAO would follow suit.
Is that not the appropriate measure to take against state-organised hijack?

Maybe you want to enlighten us what crimes he has committed that warranted the Belarus dictator government lead by Lukashenko to hijack an Airliner.

I mean look at Navalny, one of his crimes was that he was not returning to a court case because he had been poisoned by the FSB, and was hospitalized in an induced coma in Germany.

I guess some people's definition of criminal has a pretty low threshold.

Keep up the work defending the indefensible, as this what Putin and Lukashenko wants and needs.
I have many many Russian friends, I have even worked with Russian companies outside Russia, and Russian people are great and fun people, I have had many Vodka parties in the past, and you can't imagine how much they hate their own political leadership and corrupt government.

But if you speak up, it either ends with Novichok or in a camp in Siberia. Putin calls this "freedom of choice" Lukashenko is just another little dirty dog that follows Putin's orders.

If any capatain set off in that direction without enough fuel to entirely avoid Belarus today, then I'm afraid that was a rather foolish move. LHR-ISB on a 777-200er surely has enough room to stick on an hour or more extra fuel? Therefore I imagine there is probably something more to this than a simple numbers game.

LOT678 (SVO-WAW), now, straight through Belarus' airspace (FR24). So Poland is still on debate-mode?

Evidently you missed this: Ryanair's Michael O'Leary: Forced landing in Belarus was 'state-sponsored hijacking' | Newstalk

I'd imagine if they WEREN'T intercepted, Ryanair, EASA etc would deny the rumours rather than just say nothing. It would be something they'd want to come out and make very clear.

Ryanair doesn't want to promote the idea that planes can be escorted by armed sueprsonic intercepters. It hardly will do anything to promote confidence from their clientele.

Having been on both sides of this "game" I'd offer the opinion that it certainly used to be possible to intercept an airliner and not make yourself visible to those on board....That video is one example of how it might be done, without embellishing things too much I'll just say other techniques/tactics certainly used to be available.


Personally I think as you say in the case of the FR intercept there are obviously still doubts about whether the MIG existed or not but the fundamental point I'd make is that you'd have to be darned brave to assume that just because you hadn't seen a fighter ATC was telling you about that it didn't exist and there wasn't a threat.

Given how close this seemed to happen close to the Lithuanian border, wouldn't they have had some primary radar recordings that would help clear things up? I appreceiate that once it's up close they'll probably only display as one reflection anyway.

wiggy

There is a first hand evidence available to prove whether there was an intercept or not. Lithuanian and Polish radar stations are surveying Belarus airspace for obvious reasons and those radars are wired (together with number of other countries) into NATO CAOC in Uedem, Germany. Just a pity those who've seen the screens cannot post it on twitter ;)

The BBC coverage referred to in previous post includes an interview with a passenger who states she saw the "fighter", initially from a distance and subsequently at close range.

ATC ordering you to divert to a rogue state, lead by a crazy dictator, risking your crew and passengers ending up as hostages, or trying to make another 3 minutes straight ahead to get out of Belarussian airspace. Either way the crew were faced with a difficult choice, and we need more details to know what choices they had in reality.

Nobody is doubting there was a MIG close at one stage, but was it an intercept or was it an escort after the RYR started it's diversion to Minsk.

Those NATO radar images would have been mighty helpful to know these details.

The European Council today threatened further sanctions and called for bans of overflight between EU members and Belarus.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....74e58dafb5.jpg

Barend Leyts (@BarendLeyts) / Twitter

UPS 2 from Cologne to HKG has just turned right to overfly Belarus?

Have you seen the altitude profile of the flight? It seems the crew wanted to get to Lithuanian airspace as quickly as possible as they did not initiate their descent into VNO as usual.

Maintaining FL390 while discussing possible bombs on board doesn't seem to make immediate sense?!

Would the CVR still be available for readout? And were there any recordings of ATC radio traffic?

The CVR should record 2h.

It should not have been erased after landing in UMMS/MSQ as there was an incident. The 2h should be sufficient for the diversion to MSQ and the short flight back to VNO.
However, maybe the "security personal" at MSQ erased it while looking for the "bomb".

Has any agency stated they are going to investigate and have they requested the CVR?

Alpine news report that all Belarus carriers will be banned from EU airports and all EU operators will be "asked to refrain from overflying Belarus". The latter is a shame as it should be an order, not a request. We certainly need one EU aviation authority.

A U.S. registered 747-8 over Belarus today would certainly seem to be relevant to the discussion.

Exactly. Don't get shot at. Turn and land as instructed. On top of that, you're being fed false information the Lithuanians are not accepting you anyway AND threatening with their S-200 and Patriots. Easy job, no need to take sides or make decisions - just follow instructions.

For all we know, staying up there past TOD could have been the result of similar gameplay from the BY special ops team. "Oh sorry captain, VNO ACC does not give permission to land, because of your bomb. Descent not authorized, there's no one to hand you over to."

Like it was hard to check what's happening, on the right frequency - they were less than 50 NM out. Or ACARS. Or phone. Or whatever. Or they were jammed, too :/

Lots of people here do not know how ATC works and what the international interceptions rules are
The big question still open is what the crew was told and if they were intercepted or not.. If the aircraft was indeed intercepted then a large part of the discussion is becoming irrelevant.
As to disregarding an interception, well I would not advise this in any country, and definitively not after 9/11. Also since a couple of years the world is slowly becoming a much more dangerous place.

Anyway the RYR crew has been debriefed, their story will no doubt come out soon , so a bit of patience.

Alpine Flyer

FWIW the UK CAA website (updated last night) worded the sanctions as a request rather than a direct order to UK operators:

https://www.caa.co.uk/News/UK-Civil-...nt-on-Belarus/

Interesting twist: Asta Skaisgirytė, chief foreign policy adviser to the Lithuanian president, said that Belarus used two military aircraft, a MiG-29 fighter jet and a Mi-24 helicopter, in the operation, which was likely staged by the Belarusian KGB.

Taking into account that these folks most probably have the primary radar data from "better radars" and "some other intelligence info" available, I'd be keen to know what was the role of the Hind...

Source: https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-englis...arusian-regime

With the benefit of hindsight we all know this was an outrageous ploy, notwithstanding that, I suspect the FR Bomb Threat procedure is based on industry standards, the first two lines of our BTP;

Maintain current flight altitude.Divert to a nearest suitable airport.
It then rambles on and it is not appropriate to post here, however it does make sense to maintain current altitude until further investigation is carried out.

The cynic in me reflects on the fact that a somewhat lukewarm response to this outrageous act of international piracy might be motivated by a wish to reserve the possibility of a similar action by a "responsible state actor" in the case of a situation where "real bad guys" might be similarly intercepted. Call me cynical...

ATC Watcher

The Minsk ATC has reportedly released the audio (haven't managed to locate it so I will refrain from any conclusion) of the interchange between the pilots and the tower. Again reportedly the pilot says “WE are requesting emergency landing”. It would obviously be most helpfull to have said recording (I'm sure it exists).

I wouldn't be so sure of that... especially if it doesn't match the current narative

Lithuanian Minister of Defense appeared on Lithuanian TV yesterday around 2200 EEST. According to him, a Belorussian fighter jet MiG-29 was scrambled while the pilot of the airliner was in doubt whether to comply with Belorussian ATC. MiG was airborne for 13 min but did not get closer to the airliner than some 40 km. When the flight was released from MSQ, MiG escorted the plane to the Lithuanian border at close distance.

This is backed up by the BBC interview of a passenger, who said that she saw a fighter jet far away before landing in MSQ, but close during MSQ-VNO flight. Can anyone comment if it is possible to see a fighter jet 40 km away?
(Unfortunately I cannot post URLs yet, but BBC News page entitled "Belarus Ryanair flight diverted: Passengers describe panic on board" has a video with interviews, see at 1:00 min)

A passenger interviewed by Lithuanian media said that there was no disruption on board prior to landing in Minsk.

Well..yes, on a good clear day you might, just, and I'd say certainly if it is trailing (i.e. leaving a contrail), but identifying anything at that range without optical assistance..in my IMHO no.

atakacs

There is one news article on youtube where you can hear the actual ATC recording (which is dubbed in Russian immediately) and the RYR pilots are not requesting emergency landing they ask if advice to land at MSQ comes from company or Airport authorities and ATC replies advice comes from them. Starts at 27 seconds

A MIG 29 intercepting and joining up on a airliner at cruise altitude doing .80 Mach is a difficult maneuver to pull off. It would require excellent GCI and the ability to go supersonic. With the fuel limitations of the MiG 29 it would require near perfect timing on takeoff. It certainly can be done by competent air crew but timing would be critical.
In answer to can you see a fighter sized target at 40km the answer is basically no. If you know exactly where to look with a radar lock and hud queuing a fighter sized target is a pinhead at 20 km.

Aviator_IT

Wow, Kudos! Can we have a translation of this?

Apparently it is ATC (controller and supervisor) who is saying it's their recommendation that the RYR flight lands in Minsk.

So if we are to believe this, they were not intercepted or forced to go to Minsk.