Article from BTNews 25 JULY 2022
Belarus faked Ryanair bomb scare
A report by the UN aviation authority ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) on the diversion of a Ryanair flight in May 2021 criticises Belarus for endangering the safety of the aircraft and reveals new details about the actions of an air traffic controller. 
Ryanair flight FR4978, which flew from Athens (ATN) to Vilnius (VNO) on 23 May 2021, was diverted to land in Minsk (MSK) by Belarus air traffic control following an alleged bomb threat. Belarusian journalist and opposition activist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega were arrested by the Belarusian security service, following the landing.
According to the report the bomb threat was communicated upon the instructions of Belarusian government officials and was completely false.
The report also states that before FR4978 took off from Athens, a Belarusian area surveillance controller (ACC) was approached by the Director General of the Belarusian air navigation services provider, as well as an unidentified man presumed to be from the Belarusian security service.
The men informed ACC Duty Supervisor that there was a bomb onboard FR4978, and instructed him that the information was not to be shared with anyone, and that the recording of the air traffic control messages with the aircraft be destroyed.
Despite the orders, the controller recorded the communications on his smartphone, producing a record that would subsequently be used by the investigators.
According to the report, Belarusian authorities did not share some critical data with the investigators, such as email logs or telephone call recordings.
The report also details how Belarusian authorities instructed the ACC Duty Supervisor to adjust the details in an incident report and an official statement, which reflected the government’s version of events, but was later retracted by the ACC Duty Supervisor.
The ICAO team attempted to interview the ACC controller prior to the issuance of its initial report, published in January 2022, but was unable to do so, because Belarusian authorities said that his whereabouts are unknown. However, with the help of the US government the team located and interviewed the controller, who provided a testimony and retracted his earlier statements.
The information gathered led the ICAO Council to the conclusion that the bomb threat was deliberately false, and that the Belarusian government endangered the safety of the aircraft as well as contravening the spirit of the Chicago convention.
Whilst nothing to do with Russia, the authorities from that bandit country have defended the action! “The Council Representative for the Russian Federation meanwhile expressed his State’s strong objection to identifying Belarus as the source of the unlawful interference which took place”. Belarus has also claimed the report as a fabrication.
The British Foreign Office has also released a statement on the 8th anniversary of the downing of MH17 calling for the Russian Federation to accept State responsibility and to cooperate fully with all efforts to establish accountability. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/anniversary-of-the-2014-downing-of-flight-mh17-over-eastern-ukraine-uk-statement?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications-topic&utm_source=1b72426a-20a0-4b7c-8e9d-ca9ac0f4368f&utm_content=daily
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