European Union Aviation Safety Agency Calls On Airlines To Avoid Flying Over Belarus

The skies over our country have been recognized as “unsafe territory”.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), bearing in mind the recent incident with the emergency landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk, recommends airlines to avoid Belarusian airspace. “The circumstances surrounding this action cast serious doubts on the respect shown by Belarus for international civil aviation rules”, the agency’s statement reads, dw.com reports.

“The actions undertaken by Belarus amounted to an increased safety risk for the above-mentioned flight and put into question the ability of Belarus to provide safe air navigation services”, the document states. In this regard, EASA recommends air companies to avoid operations in the Belarusian airspace unless the use of that airspace is deemed necessary to ensure safe operation in case of unforeseen circumstances.

The Ryanair plane incident

The Ryanair plane, en route from Athens to Vilnius, was urgently landed in Minsk because of a false message about the bomb on board. A MiG-29 fighter was raised to escort the aircraft.

On the board of the Ryanair flight were a wanted Belarusian opposition blogger, former editor-in-chief of the Nexta Telegram channel Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend, a Russian citizen, Sofia Sapega. After the plane landed, both of them were detained. Germany, the European Union, the United States and other Western countries strongly condemned the actions of Belarus, accusing the authorities of this country of state terrorism, and promised to expand sanctions against Minsk. They also demanded the immediate release of Pratasevich.

Refusal to use the airspace of Belarus

After the Ryanair incident, Great Britain and France suspended the permission for flights of the Belarusian state airline Belavia, Lithuania stopped accepting planes from Belarus, and the European Council ordered to ban Belavia flights to all EU countries.

A number of European airlines, including French Air France, Latvian airBaltic, Dutch KLM, Scandinavian SAS, Hungarian Wizz Air, German Lufthansa, and Finnish Finnair, refused to use the Belarusian airspace.