Global aviation on alert after Ryanair flight “hijacked” over Belarus

PARIS.- Global Aviation It is going through its biggest political crisis in years after the Belarusian government sent a fighter jet, issued a false bomb threat to force a plane to land the day before yesterday, and then arrested a journalist on board.

Some European airlines have started avoid Belarusian airspace, a key corridor between Western Europe and Moscow, and the route of long-haul flights between Western Europe and Asia.

At least one flight from Ryanair, the company of the plane that was forced to make the forced landing, deviated from its route after the events to avoid flying over Belarus, according to tracking data from Flightradar24.

Latvian airline airBaltic said it had decided not to use the country’s airspace “until the situation clears up “.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) called for “an emergency meeting of the 36 diplomatic representatives of the Council” for Thursday amid deep concern over the events that have taken place, the UN agency reported yesterday.

The body, without regulatory power, He argued that the incident could have violated a central air treaty, part of the international order created after World War II.

“ICAO is very concerned about the alleged forced landing of a Ryanair flight and its passengers, which may be in violation of the Chicago Convention,” he said on Sunday.

In this way, he would suffer an act of “piracy”, he said. Kevin humphreys, former Irish aviation regulator on the incident.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) announced that it had raised the incident with its 31 member states and an air source said the agency had recommended “caution” about Belarus.

According to the rules of world aviation, neither ICAO nor any country can close the airspace of another, But some, like the United States, have the power to tell their own airlines where not to fly.

However, global airlines have called for an investigation, supported by the European Union.

“We strongly condemn any interference or landing requirement of civil aviation operations which is incompatible with the rules of international law,” said the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

“A thorough investigation is needed by the relevant international authorities,” said IATA, which represents some 280 airlines. It is not yet clear how such an investigation will be conducted.

Aviation lacks a global police force to avoid constant disputes over sovereignty, although it has a globally agreed system of rules and the center of the system is ICAO.

The rules are administered through the Montreal-based agency by its 193 members, including Belarus, and ICAO has rarely been directly involved in inspecting issues such as airport security.

Humphreys said it would be the first time in memory that the agency would have to reflect on claims that one of its own member countries forced a plane to land, in what Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary called a “state hijacking.”

Belarus said on Monday that the pilot of the plane made the descent on his own, without being forced, after receiving information about a bomb threat which the international airport said was from the terrorist group Hamas. .

The West discredited this version of events, while Russia accused it of hypocrisy, citing the case of a Bolivian presidential plane forced to land in Austria or a Belarusian airliner ordered to land in Ukraine in 2016.

Reuters and AFP agencies

THE NATION