DISINFO: CEO of Ryanair reveals reasons for pilot’s landing in Minsk
SUMMARY
The CEO of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, confirmed that the pilot could not do anything other than land at Minsk after being informed of a bomb threat by Belarusian authorities.
RESPONSE
A recurring disinformation narrative that attempts to justify the forced landing of Ryanair flight 4978 in Minsk by Belarusian authorities in May 2021 with Belarusian dissident Raman Pratasevich on board. This article in particular deliberately misrepresents the evidence provided by Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, to the British Transport Select Committee on 15 June 2021.
The article heavily implies that the pilot of the Ryanair flight simply followed safety procedure and voluntarily landed in Minsk after being informed of a bomb threat. However, the staff of the plane, including the pilots, have stressed that their actions were not voluntary and that they were, in effect, forced to land in Minsk by Belarusian authorities. At the time, the plane was twice as close to Vilnius compared to Minsk. The Belarusian air force scrambled a MiG-29 jet fighter to coerce the passenger plane to turn for Minsk a few miles before entering Lithuanian air space. Moreover, there were Belarusian intelligence agents onboard the passenger plane who interfered with the work of the crew.
The article deliberately omits key parts of the statements that Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, recently gave to the UK's Transport Select Committee as evidence. According to Mr O’Leary, the pilot and the rest of the crew had no choice but to comply and land in Minsk. The pilot repeatedly requested a connection to Ryanair’s control center in Warsaw, as well as alternatives to landing to Minsk, but was continuously lied to and rebuffed by Belorussian authorities. O’Leary has repeatedly condemned the actions of Belarus, calling them a “premeditated breach of all the international aviation rules” and “state-sponsored piracy”.
Read similar disinformation cases in the database claiming that the diversion of the Ryanair flight was appropriate, perfectly legal, and not coerced, that Belarus acted in strict accordance with international law in the Ryanair incident, that the West used the Ryanair flight to advance its political goals against Belarus, and that Belarus acted in full accordance with international law when the Ryanair pilot decided to land in Minsk.