A Ryanair flight was traveling through Belarusian airspace from Athens to Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, when it was compelled to make an emergency landing in Minsk because of a fake bomb threat, as per ABC via MSN.
Ryanair gets escorted by Belarusian Air Force to Minsk
While midair, a MiG-29 of the Belarusian Air Force intercepted the passenger plane and escorted it to Minsk. When it landed, security agents apprehended Protasevich, who founded the social media news channel NEXTA that had a big part against protests directed at the Belarusian leader Lukashenko, noted Yahoo.
Several European countries have responded harshly to President Lukashenko's act, charging him with forcing down a European flight as part of the pre-arranged operation to capture Protasevich.
The outrageous and illegal behaviour of the regime in Belarus will have consequences.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 23, 2021
Those responsible for the #Ryanair hijacking must be sanctioned.
Journalist Roman Protasevich must be released immediately.
EUCO will discuss tomorrow action to take.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, expressed disgust at the conduct and mentioned that sanctions must be carried out on those responsible.
She wrote on Twitter, "The military's outrageous and illegal actions in Belarus will have consequences. The perpetrators of the #Ryanair hijacking should be penalized. Roman Protasevich, a journalist, should be immediately released."
To follow, she added, will be a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday to discuss further what happens next. Like France and the United Kingdom, leaders from other countries are unilaterally condemning the perceived illegal hijack, increasing demands for measures targeting Lukashenko. The Belarus regime hijacked Ryanair to apprehend someone considered out of bounds.
One statement of Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland's Prime Minister, stated that hijacking a Ryanair flight is a "reprehensible act of state terrorism." While Ireland Prime Minister Micheál Martin characterized it as "extraordinary" and said, it needs to be resolved at the EU foreign ministers' meeting.
The US ambassador to Belarus, Julie Fisher, whose embassy is in Vilnius, remarked that the Ryanair detour was branded as "dangerous and repulsive," displaying Lukashenko's contempt for the international community.
After the intrusion of the Belarus Regime, the flight continued on its way and arrived in Vilnius last Sunday evening after spending several hours in Minsk. The Lithuanian prime minister met the arriving passengers, who reported to the local media how they landed and were searched by Belarusian security officers.
A passenger shared that Protasevich was alarmed when the plane was escorted to Minsk by the fighter plane before landing.
One of those on board the plane remarked that the activist leader said that death would be waiting for him when they landed before he was taken away.
Belarusian air traffic control directed the aircraft to Minsk because of a "potential security threat on board," Ryanair announced in a prepared statement. That countered Belarusian officials' assertions that they had responded to a request for help from the aircraft.
Airline officials said that the plane landed with no incident, and passengers left the aircraft. At the same time, security checks were carried out without any evidence of the bomb threat. Later the passengers were on the plane after five hours and should be leaving by 7 p.m. at Minsk local time.
The airline apologized to all the relevant national and European safety and security agencies, especially for the delay. However, it omitted any mention of the 22-year-old Roman Protasevich after the Belarus regime hijacked the Ryanair.
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