Lithuanian Seimas to discuss “teddy bear bombing” today

The Committee on National Security and Defence of the Lithuanian Parliament is expected to discuss the situation over  the “teddy bear bombing” by a Swedish plane in Belarus at an extra meeting today.

The meeting starts at 2 p.m. today, BelaPAN news agency learned from committee chair Arvydas Anusauskas.

Anusauskas said last week in an interview for Ziniu Radijas that the Swedish aircraft overflew the border on July 4 due to a “simple mistake” made by a shift on watch.

“One simple mistake determines a lot. I think this time we will find it was a mistake: aircrafts are visible on radar screens, their speed is identified by technical means. Since there was no identification and radio contact with the Swedish aircraft was not established, it was noted automatically: an 'unidentified' plane flew from  the Pociunai airport . When the lost aircraft returned into Lithuania’s airspace, it was labeled as identified, though it should have been labeled as unidentified,” Anusauskas said. “What can I say? The Estonian shift was on watch. We will not do anything with Estonian soldiers,” the committee chair said.

Anusauskas thinks the reaction of Lithuanian agencies to the incident was wrong and they should admit their mistake.

A light plane with teddy bears piloted by Swedish nationals from Studio Total PR agency overflew the Belarusian border on the morning of July 4. It remained  in Belarus's airspace for about 1.5 hours and dropped about 800 toys with pro-democracy leaflets over Ivyanets and the outskirts of Minsk.