The USA, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Austria combined to force down President Evo Morales’ jet in Vienna in 2013 after the CIA falsely reported whistleblower Edward Snowden was on board. The monumental cynicism of these nations in sanctioning Belarus for a directly comparable action is sickening, even by the standards of western hypocrisy. Indeed, to force down a Presidential jet covered by diplomatic immunity is a greater offence to international law than Belarus forcing down the Ryanair flight.
Both actions are wrong. You will excuse me also for pointing out that there is no sanction on Israel for targeting over 30 news organisations in Gaza and bombing them.
Perhaps I might go still further and mention that as I am about to go to jail for dissident blogging, I see the western powers as having limited moral authority to complain of Belarus jailing dissident bloggers? That is even without mentioning the long term persecution and entirely false accusation of my friend and the world’s greatest exposer of war crimes and government corruption, Julian Assange.
Apologies for the very short post. Am not too well and have been confined to bed since yesterday. I have an MRI scan in the morning, but hope and intend to bounce back very soon.
In the event I am put in jail at short notice, I wish to make plain that I am absolutely happy with my family and in fighting form, raring to get to the Supreme Court and there is no chance whatsoever that I will voluntarily commit suicide.
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Absolutely staggering you have had to write that last paragraph in 21st century Scotland.
Stay strong Craig,a great many have your back.
Craig Murray,
There are so many injustices and misinformation ( informed) sources of information that I just found myself having to re-direct a Professor friend of mine), for reason that he quite innocently was repeating information from the mainstream media to support his well intentioned support of a two state solution – so I responded in the following way:-
“Richard,
You might find this strange – but – I now see only a one state solution for the following reasons:-
i) Israel has destroyed contiguous land space precisely to defeat a two state solution; and
ii) The US and Israel have corrupted the PLO to make any viable, honest, negotiations via the PLO tangible in the interest of the Palestinian people.
Check it out – and we can discuss further.
Cheers.
Courtenay
Read: Said’s link is at the end of this article. – Edward Said’s One-State Solution (vijayvaani.com)
You should be able to link here:-
Vijayvaani.com – Edward Said’s One-State Solution
Keep your head up, Mr. Murray, this nightmare cannot go on forever, good luck with your appeal.
Great Post Craig. Thanks and Good Luck.
I don’t agree with very much of what you write, Craig, but, as the old saw has it, I will defend your right to say it. And yes, the obvious hypocrisy over bloggers (and other things) mentioned here is so absurdly extreme that it renders moot the whole concept of ‘cognitive dissonance’…
James Wolffe’s been beamed up, Scottie.
Nicola Sturgeon’s been beamed down.
Boris Johnson’s about to be beamed up.
Lease her Nandy’s about to be beamed down.
This can only mean one thing, when male politicians have lost every shred of credibility, send in the female politicians to deploy their feminine charm.
Honour, truth and responsibility are So yesterday.
That’s really not how we do things these days
.
I really hope you know how much we all respect you for these old school values of yours, Craig, which our political classes have binned as if they were the mattresses of covid patients and left to rot on the public roads.
Such a brave man Craig , you inspire us all . When I feel like giving up , you pump me up
again . Why did the UK Foreign Service ever let you go?
Tony Kevin.
“Why did the UK Foreign Service ever let you go?”
Simple: He told the truth – a truth antithetical to Imperial interests.
Not so much “let go” as defamed, persecuted and pushed out.
It’s the British way!
“Simple: He told the truth – a truth antithetical to Imperial interests.”
That’s accurate, as far as it goes. Thing is, a diplomat is a person hired to lie for his country. Craig insisted on telling the truth (not publicly – to his masters). His senior boss was the weasely Jack Straw, a man whose respect for the truth is comparable to my respect for Lukashenko. It’s hardly surprising Craig was pushed out.
Sir Oswald Mosley lived too soon. He’d have made a fine PM for today’s post-constitutional Britain.
Stunning hypocrisy. And get well soon – I hope it’s nothing too serious. Good luck with it all
The first thing I thought of was you today when I heard R4 presenter of The World at One sanctimoniously spouting about the Belarussian arrest off a forced-down plane. Why are they not discussing the politically motivated sentence you have received!!!
Keep smiling ..at least you haven’t been irradiated to buggery like me last year in Europe after being refused medical treatment here by NHS for coronavirus neglect damage.
You have our support whole heartedly.
~
We are watching everything closely.
~
The hypocrisy of things has reached the moment of no return, so the time is upon us. It is now or never.
~
I look forward to years and years of listening to your wisdom and experiences as only somebody like yourself can share. You are in my mind and in my heart as I type this and part of me thinks that a year from now we can all relish the memory, but another part of me knows how hard any struggle against entrenched powers that be can be, so I don’t really know but I’m not afraid of uncertainty.
~
In the end justice will prevail and so if nothing else, take solace in that. I do.
~
All the best,
Ken
As with Assange, justice will prevail – eventually.
The MSM can’t stop the people becoming increasingly aware of just how corrupt our very own UK institutions really are and the protests against Israel are encouraging.
You know you’re doing the right thing: good luck.
Indeed. It was shocked to hear how armed police were seen policing a peaceful protest in Manchester. When questioned about this Manchester Police said they had no knowledge of it and advised asking British Transport Police who may have authorised the presence of live fire arms. Police also assaulted several protesters, for making eye contact, and then later followed and subsequently assaulted those who went to provide medical assistance. Intimidation is ramping up and balanced sources of information are scarce. Israel is presuming on Biden’s cooperation for its intended escalation of terror against the Palestinians. Biden’s children are all married to Jewish people, as is Kamala Harris. As is Starmer. There is a sense of the tail wagging the dog in all this. Russia brokered a stasis of peace between Iran and Israel, and Israel has forged stronger ties with some of its Arab neighbours. If Israel breaches that peace agreement, then Russia has promised to support whichever country is targeted first by the other. Biden is looking into the abyss. Things don’t look very good for the Palestinians and Europe is in an uncomfortable position.
Whether someone’s spouse follows a form of superstitious mumbo-jumbo is irrelevant, particularly if the superstition is Judaism. To be Jewish is to be an anti-zionist.
Craig, thank you for being willing to pay the price of having integrity.
I only hope that it doesn’t become higher.
Western “Democracies” have abandoned any pretense of the “Rule of Law”, a sad and dangerous end to a short lived American Empire.
And those who expose government lies and crimes have been persecuted worldwide for more than a decade now and it seems to be becoming more extreme by the month.
I’m sitting on the deck of a cottage in a redwood grove half the World away, grateful that you have taken the stand you have.
If the Supreme Court has the sense to understand how much damage prosecuting you does to the legitimacy of the State they might reluctantly do the right thing.
Be lucky, Tom
The entire European continental media seem to be in a feeding frenzy over this, which smells of coordination. For while bad, it pales into insignificance compared to the loss of life and medical facilities in Gaza we’ve seen in recent days. Clearly, the bigger fish (agenda) here is Russia, Welt has pictures linking the two leaders, as if Belarus has zero autonomy and is incapable of carrying this out on its own. Raab hinted at the same today in the HoC, as did Russophobe Bob Seely on Newsnight – unchallenged by the presenter for evidence to back up his claims. We seem to be developing a custom, a fortnightly ‘Russia scare’.
Crimes against journalists don’t get any worse than when Jamal Khashoggi was literally butchered in an embassy. Mike Pompeo raced to the ME remember, “to smooth things over” as our dear press put it.
*Saudi consulate not the embassy.
Goose
Dominic Rennie Raab looks like he might have Scottish ancestry. If only he had my ed in Sturgeon ‘ s Scotland. He could have been a trans hater of women’s liberties and left the Russians in peace. All one needs is an outlet for ones poison. Any outlet will do, but better not to pour it on people who have nuclear weapons pointng at you.
Is Raab a Scots name?
Rennie is.
Raab is a Jewish name. His father was Jewish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Raab
The EU and UK roles in the Gaza massacre has already been forgotten, if it was ever mentioned. They are back to holding moral high ground over Belarus, Russia and everyone else.
In 2010 the U.S. wanted to arrest a man who was on a flight from France to Mexico. On U.S. instigation the plane was diverted to Canada where the man was arrested and later transferred to the U.S.
In 2012 Turkey forced down a Syrian passenger plane flying from Moscow to Damascus to search it for weapons. None were found.
In 2013 U.S. allies shut down their airspace for a flight carrying the Bolivian President Evo Morales from Moscow. The plane had to divert to Austria where the authorities insisted on searching the plane for the “fugitive” Edward Snowden before letting it fly again. Snowden was not on board.
In 2016 the Ukraine sent military jets to force a plane flying from Kiev to Minsk to return to Kiev. The authorities were looking for a certain passenger on board who was later found to have be the wrong man
Ukraine in 2020 had planned to abduct Russian mercenaries on a flight from Minsk to Turkey by forcing the plane to land in Kiev. The plot failed.
The stench of western hypocrisy is rank in the air as usual, sadly I’m becoming immune to it, it happens far too often.
In 2010 the U.S. wanted to arrest a man who was on a flight from France to Mexico. On U.S. instigation the plane was diverted to Canada where the man was arrested and later transferred to the U.S.
Do you have any specifics about this case? I remember an AF flight not given access to US airspace but nothing of the sort.
Alex T
You are subtracting one breaching of international Law from another and arguing that they cancel each other out. You have to add them together. Then you get cumulative hypocrisy and blatant , universal defiance of international Law.
Certainly not cancelling each other.
Just pointing out that despite the apparent similarities these are in fact two fairly distinct set of circumstances, both in terms of applicable international law and risks to innocent people. Neither is acceptable but, again, what happened in Belarus is in my book way more serious.
I’d have thought the risk to innocent people was far higher in Gaza .. from bombs supplied by the EU. Of course the innocents massacred there day after day were brown and Muslim, so non-people in EU terms. No self-reprimand required nor threats of sanctions on Israel..But you may be right that this Ryanair thing is far more serious. The EU and western media reaction confirms that.
The only approach for one being “more serious” than the other is one in which the generic principle which has been breached in every single case is selectively applied for the sake of partisan convenience.
An approach commonly known as exceptionalism.
Irrespective of the above does anyone have specifics about the 2010 case mentioned by Gerald ?
Details of the 2010 US ‘hijacking’ of a plane in order to arrest somebody on board are here: https://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/05/30/canada.flight.diverted/index.html
While we are listing previous occasions, let’s not forget 1985 when the US sent fighters to intercept a 737 flying from Egypt to Tunisia and threatened to blow it up if it didn’t land at a US airbase in Italy.
Just to add a couple of more. ..(repeat)
1975 MALEV flight 240 Budapest-Beirut (the likely culprits were the IAF)
https://aeronauticsonline.com/still-no-hope-in-the-most-mysterious-crash/
1967 USS Liberty (here come IAF again)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident
Plus the USS Vincennes shooting down Iran Air flight 655 in 1988, whilst the flight was over Iranian territorial waters. All 290 people on board were killed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655
Hypocrisy is a resource that has its value in statecraft. I wonder if it is a renewable resource or non-renewable. I guess it is renewable, but like with fishing and forestry, you can create a severe shortage of believable blather.
Stay strong Craig. This intimidation is foul. Please know that you have my deepest respect.
It’s an fkn outrage, we’ve become a tin pot dictatorship.
It’s not quantity, but quality that counts. And integrity. There is a reason I support your blog. Keep well and stay strong.
I wish you much strength – and take care of your personal health first and foremost in the coming time. Also in the future the world needs people like you.
Frustrated myself not to be able to do more.
Craig,
you have given me so much good insight over the past few years, with your informed and unique writing. Our MSM has degenerated into the foetid, sycophantic role of propagandists for the few that dumb down the many, but you are a breath of fresh air. Your expertise brought to the fore the shocking, unscrupulous dealings of a rogue State out to crush dissent, with your coverage of Julian Assange’s English court travesty.
Little did I imagine that the so called ‘great and the good’ who wield the power in MY country of birth would turn out to be the agents of our current jaw-dropping situation, and jailing you for exercising our right of freedom of speech. It’s those that have something to hide who shelter behind clever legal proscriptions. The sheer vindictiveness of singling you out with the peculiar and unfathomable charge of jigsaw identification of PROVEN PERJURERS, to my mind demonstrates beyond doubt, the terminal malaise running through the heart of the Scottish Establishment; it’s diminished oor proud wee country’s status to that of a banana democracy.
But now the Genie’s out of the bottle and with it, a growing awareness of the problem, you pulled the cork and released the beast with the defiance and determination it takes to do what’s right, the grit that irritates the oyster always becomes a shining pearl, THANK-YOU!
I know that your jail-time will pass in a flash, think of it as time-off for bad behaviour and when done, you’ll muse over just what a sharny crock it’s all been!
Soar Alba!
I’m not that convinced that the media has “degenerated”. When I cast my mind back, it was always filled with dubious propaganda. But in those days you might suspect the lies but no more than that. You could seek out one or two different information sources such as the fading signal of Radio Moscow. Different from but even less trustworthy than the BBC. You could gripe to friends who would think to themselves that you were obsessed. You could prove your obsession by trawling through piles of old newspapers and showing them how what the papers said last year conflicts with what they are saying now. What’s changed is the range of news sources we have now. Mostly with their own agendas but not all the same agenda. Along with the ability to search for specific information, including what the media reported years ago, in seconds.
As you most likely know state aircraft are governed by very different rules. And diplomatic snafus for whatever reasons do happen, even to very powerful leaders, as it recently did to Merkel for example, and most other leaders at some point as well. Therefore i would still argue that both cases are not really comparable, especially as the landing site was not chosen by someone outside of the state aircraft whereas it was enforced, according to Belarus statements, by military force in the case of Ryanair.
Again, not saying waht happened with Morales flight was acceptable, but here we have a full civilian airliner with 175 pax.
I believe Craig said both are wrong. His point is the blinding hypocrisy of the Euro elite reaction. Not only compared with the Morales-Snowden flight but also the Israeli, Scottish and English treatment of dissident journalists. His point is they are frauds, taking you for a ride.
You might be confusing a civilian airliner with a government aircraft when comparing the Morales flight with the Lukashenko hijacking. Also: I can’t recall any fighters intercepting Morales’ plane, yet this appears to have happened with the Ryanair flight.
Fighters intercepting? Where did it come from? I didn’t know of any fighters.
The very first news reported that the crew had received a message about a bomb on board, so the plane was urgently landed and it stood for 7 hours before continuing the flight.
How to kill two birds with one stone. Now Russia is implicated according to Raab, without any evidence, as of course it must always be. And he is threatening to block Nordstream 2. Presumably he will send a naval task force to the Baltic to bombard Petrograd.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/dominic-raab-foreign-secretary-minsk-civil-aviation-authority-belarus-b936979.html?via=webuproar
“Presumably he will send a naval task force to the Baltic to bombard Petrograd”.
Ah yes, as the Royal Navy did in 1919. I read with interest of the British tank that is still preserved In Arkhangelsk as a monument to the many vitims of the British “intervention” (read: “invasion”).
WW2 British cemetery in Archangels (naval convoy) worth mentioning too.
ah, I see, it must be that ‘interception’
The MiG-29 escorted a civilian plane to a safe alternate airfield. This was confirmed by the Belarusian Air Force Headquarters.
at 08:20
https://youtu.be/0LxClg5PrKM?t=502
also I must add, Roman lies about the death penalty, the most he might get is 15 years in prison.
For exercising what should be his right to free speech? Well that’s alright then.
Any idea why his girlfriend has been arrested as well? Apart from being a way of putting pressure on him.
I have only one idea in this regard, Kempe 🙂
Most likely, Lukashenko decided that since Europe and the United States allow themselves such actions with Assange and Snowden, then it is all the more natural for him, as a well-known bloody dictator, to do the same.
Doesn’t make it right.
No one says it’s right. You’ve been watching me long enough to know that I’m discussing events without taking sides.
Yes of course, two wrongs do not make a right and Lukashenko is not easily defensible. In fact I believe Putin is keeping him at arms length, he has been trying to double deal behind the scenes and he is certainly no angel. Also my enemy’s enemy is not necessarily always my friend.
But the facts here are not really still known or agreed upon. Was it a highjack by forced landing or was it a pilot request to land because of fear of a bomb. The two scenarios place the events in completely different lights. Having said that, it sounds just too much of a coincidence that this Guy happens to be in this plane with a hoax bomb forcing a landing. But on balance, why should the West hold Lukashenko with higher standards than it expects from its own behaviour?
For me, it doesn’t matter whether the bomb report was true or false. All I would like in a situation if I was on board is for the crew and all services to work according to the protocol, even with the slightest suspicion.
I’d rather play it safe and lose 7 hours than blow up on an airplane. And I don’t mind that the military plane accompanies, because someone must control the route and, in case of misfortune, transfer the coordinates of the place and the like. It is unlikely that a special civilian aircraft on duty exists in Belarus for such purposes. It is most logical to entrust such tasks to the military.
Was the situation orchestrated? My opinion is yes, most likely. Who was interested in this? – it may be Lukashenko, but it may be much more advantageous for the opposition to raise another scandal around Belarus.
Let’s wait and see. In my experience, the truth is always somewhere in between. It is quite possible that the message about the bomb came from “foreign partners” with the expectation that the standard protocol would work and Protasevich would be detained.
I wouldn’t quite blame this guy expecting his death. Have lot of Belarus prisoners survived 15 years sentence?
Belarus sent up a single fighter to convince the airliner’s pilot to heed the “bomb-threat”.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/belarus-forces-vilnius-bound-ryanair-plane-land-detain-blogger-2021-05-23/
Re “Fighter jets”
It depends which account you read, if you read the New York Times then there were fighter jets, If you read the Independent (https://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/everything-we-know-so-farabout-belarus-forced-landing-of-ryanair-flight-40466529.html) There is no mention of jets.
If there was a bomb on board why direct the plane to fly to a capital city?
Main stream media is largely a commercial or a propaganda enterprise, to sell papers facts will be garbled and to rally support for a desired outcome a certain amount of invention will occur. The hypocrisy Craig has highlighted is obvious in this case and you would have to be stupid not to see the manipulation of the narrative. No amount of nit picking over whether the two events he talks about were directly comparable or merely just comparable can disguise that. Well said Craig, and good luck both with your health and your appeal against the inappropriate and disproportionate sentence you have received.
Just to be clear. Is it being claimed that:
A. Any non military aircraft in which a threat occurs during flight transit has never resulted in military aircraft being mobilised to escort and assist the flight to a safe and secure ground area?
B. This has never occurred in the West, ever?
Have a read of Moon of Alabama, maybe that will clear it up a bit.
Okay, let’s unravel the truth from the BS. I should add here that I’ve been following NEXTA on Telegram for over a year.
1) Protasevich isn’t a “blogger.” Since 2019, he has been the HEAD of an organization (NEXTA) that openly demands the overthrow of the Belarusian government. They primarily operate on Telegram, but they are based in Poland and financed and supported by the Polish government.
2) Protasevich is being charged with “fomenting social hatred” which is pretty darn accurate. NEXTA has flooded their channels with DOXXING information, including home addresses and phone numbers, and encouraging their followers to harass anyone who supports the Belarus government. Most of the people being doxxed are WOMEN whose “crime” (in NEXTA’s eyes) was serving as election monitors in the 2020 elections. Many urban polling places in Belarus are at schools, and teachers and school staff serve as election monitors.
3) Protasevich briefly worked with the media arm of the Nazi Azov battalion in Ukraine.
4) Protasevich became less involved with NEXTA last year as he moved to Lithuania to coordinate with so-called opposition “leader” Svetlana Tikhanoushkaya (Lithuania is now supporting her call to overthrow the gov’t of Belarus).
5) The flight that Protasevich was on departed Athens because he had been in Greece specifically to film Tikhanoushkaya’s appearance there.
6) The Minsk ATC released the audio of the interchange between the pilots and the tower. Since all international aviation uses English, it is unmistakeable that the pilots said “WE are requesting emergency landing” rather than any story about Belarus “forcing down” the plane. Belarus gov’t later said it was Hamas(?) who phoned Ryan Air and said they had put a bomb aboard.
Ryan Air could clear this up in two seconds, if they wanted to, but they obviously don’t as the UK has already declared it will sanction Nord Stream 2 (which has nothing to do with Belarus) and is itching to start a conflict with Russia.
7) Protasevich must’ve thought it pretty humorous to fly over his “enemy” until oops-a-daisy, he found himself going home sooner than he had anticipated. As for “being near death,” that was dispelled today by footage released from Belarusian gov’t in which he looks quite normal.
8) How long before a plane with Craig Murray on board is forced to the ground? If he pulls a runner from Scotland, I wouldn’t be surprised if they go to the ends of the earth to drag him back home.
Roman Protasevich didn’t just work briefly with the media arm of Azov battalion. According to Canadian academic Ivan Katchanovski on his Twitter feed, Protasevich spent a whole year in the Donbass war zone and was wounded more than once. Katchanovski did Google searches but could not turn up any articles or photographs taken by Protasevich during his time with Azov battalion.
We are yet to hear Ryanair officials. A nearest military airport (far away from population) would’ve been probably a better choice. The MIG29 ensured this wouldn’t be the captain’s choice. Amateur videos show passengers and military walking causally around the safely landed aeroplane searching languages and no evacuation slides were released.
Sam I know little about the incident but according to the maps published the plane was far closer to Lithuania when diverted than to Minsk. The maps shows them nearly at the border. The plane would have been descending. Looking a Google satellite maps both airports are situated in Urban areas so would have equal risk of ground casualties if the plane should explode on landing. Also Ryanair would be liable for additional landing and handling costs. No one would divert a plane voluntarily to an airport further away increasing flight time if they were due to land at the destination airport in half the time. It would be the equivalent of a plane having engine trouble on final approach to Heathrow and deciding to divert to Manchester Airport.
Simple common sense tells me that the Belarusian authorities were obliged to take action, because the plane was on their territory. It seems to me that there is a standard protocol for bomb reports, doesn’t it?
I do not think that the Belarusian authorities had the right to wait for the plane to cross the border, and generally do anything outside the standard protocol.
if the bomb alert was real and not, as it would appear, a ruse by Belarus.
As Stuart says standard protocol is to get the aircraft to land at the nearest airport that can take it for obvious reasons. The longer it’s in the air the longer it’s at risk.
given the hostile relations between Lithuania and Belarus, Minsk seems to be the fastest reacheable destination.
The aircraft was 60 miles from its intended destination, Vilnius, and was diverted to Minsk which was more than twice the distance.
Kempe, any information on where was the plane at the moment of receiving the alert message? Any information on the time they needed to make the decision and get the instructions? The turning point is the last event in the chain, not the first. You can’t say the plane was diverted abruptly just some miles away from the destination
Exactly, Belarus acted normal,
here is for an example from the U.S, same reaction:
U.S. fighter jets escort flight back to Toronto after bomb threat
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-fighter-jets-escort-commercial-flight-back-to-toronto-after-bomb-threat/
With Respect Tatyana it was definitely not standard procedure. Why would you extend the flight time. If a bomb was due to go off during the flight that only had 10 min to go, then by extending the distance and flight time you would guarantee the bomb to detonate. The plane was hijacked pure and simple. And just because others have done it doesn’t make it any more reasonable. If they wanted to arrest him they should ask the Lithuanian authorities in a legal way.
with no less respect, Stuart, do you understand at least a little in Russian?
https://people.onliner.by/2021/05/24/departament-po-aviacii-zachital-soobshhenie-ob-ugroze-vzryva-samoleta-ryanair
“…The briefing is given by Artem Sikorsky, Director of the Aviation Department of the Ministry of Transport and Communications; Leonid Churo, Director General of Belaeronavigatsia, and Igor Golub, Commander of the Air Force and Air Defense Forces of the Belarusian Armed Forces.
… The message that came to the email of the National Airport:
‘We, the Hamas soldiers, demand that Israel cease fire in the Gaza Strip. We demand that the European Union renounce its support for Israel in this war. It’s known that the participants of the Delfi Economic Forum are returning home on flight 4978. A bomb is planted in this plane. If you do not fulfill our demands, the bomb will explode over Vilnius on May 23’
* to me personally this sounds as a perfect BS as a hieromonk killer hired by Putin 🙂 Nontheless I understand the info MUST have been checked regardless of obvious bullshitry *
… In accordance with the Chicago Convention /// a procedure was put into effect.
… The flight departed from Athens at 10:10 Minsk time and entered the airspace of Belarus at 12:30 // information about the incoming threat was immediately communicated. At that moment, the crew could take the opportunity and decide to return to Lviv, to Kiev, to land in Warsaw, continue the flight to Vilnius, and so on // at 12:47 the transponder code 7700 *was turned on by the crew*, indicating the presence of an emergency, and in radiotelephone mode *the crew* requested assistance with the established phrase MAD. After that, the crew said that they had made a decision to land at the Minsk National Airport
… Transcript of negotiations between the dispatcher and the crew shows that there was no pressure on the decision-making
… Military, Igor Golub: we received the signal from Ryanair at 12:47. The operator on duty // received a command from the airport dispatcher at 12:48, that is, a minute later // the MiG-29 crew on duty took off at 13:04 // At this time, the Ryanair board was already in the Stolbtsy area, according to Golub. The Ministry of Defense has all the screenshots confirming this version // The aircraft was already heading for landing according to the decision of the crew commander, at 13:18 we received information that the Boeing-737 had safely landed at the Minsk airport. After that, the crew on duty, which was at that time in the area above the Machulishchi airfield, was sent to the departure airport in Baranovichi.
Thus, according to Golub, the MiG-29 was not in the immediate vicinity of a civilian aircraft and did not force it to land.
Why raise a fighter at all? Igor Golub clarified that if a civilian plane for some reason is forced to leave the planned route, the air defense forces on duty are obliged to provide him with assistance.
—
Commentary by Hamas is published by Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/article/belarus-politics-officials/belarus-points-to-hamas-bomb-threat-in-plane-diversion-hamas-rejects-claim-idUSL5N2NB3XU
pilot-dispatcher transcript in English – without fighters or coercion
https://pikabu.ru/story/ministerstvo_transporta_belarusi_opublikovalo_rasshifrovku_fragmenta_peregovorov_yekipazha_samoleta_ryanair_8232391
and something for fun
https://cs12.pikabu.ru/post_img/2021/05/25/7/1621937383125179945.jpg
“Boshirov and Petrov: we went to Minsk as tourists to see the airport…”
Belorussian Ministry of Transport website is down. The transcript originally was published there
http://caa.gov.by/ru/news-ru/view/1-203/
Stuart
Could you elaborate?
A bomb threat goes off, the plane seek out a strip to land, escorted by fighter jets, plane are grounded and searched.
What is not normal procedure here?
Also, it was Latvian, not Lithuanian, besides these nations do not have good relations to say the least. Latvia openly backs the people that want to overthrow Belarus, they would of course not extradite anyone to Belarus.
Sorry Tatyana but you are defending the indefensible.
Nobody with a head on their shoulders is swallowing it.
Anyway this post is about the hypocrisy of the West’s rhetoric.
Stuart, what you say it is a perfect common sense. However, as it happened to an AF flight Paris-Bristol (1 hour) the pilot, unannounced, turned around the plane closer to its destination due to engine fault. I keep trying to say that there is not a single Ryanair statement until now.
I agree with JM, absolutely staggering that you felt you had to write that last paragraph
The name is EVO, not EVA. Please!
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[ Mod: Amended. Thank you. ]
Lukashenco had steered his ship due west. We were very active there engineering another Midan with the likes of Roman. Now things have changed and the ship has changed course for unity with Russia. We are not very happy Russia is not going to allow us to do another Ukraine. I can’t see Lukashenco lasting though.
So sorry to hear that you’re feeling ill again but not surprising really given what you’ve been going through. Oh the irony of the western world condemning Belarus while ignoring the plight of people like yourself and Julian.
Hope you’ll soon be feeling fighting fit again. xx
Brought this all on yourself no one else to blame
zzz boring Sturgeon cult arrive
What, for speaking truth to power you mean?
Frank. Thats what the concentration camp guards say to their captives and the torturers to their victims. Goodmorning to you aswell, your a sad screwed up miserable barstuard.
Good post Mr Murray. I hope you get well soon.
Moon of Alabama has an excellent post on the EU and UK hypocrisy.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/
Where does all this hatred come from?
This is the same idiocy that the world saw before WW1.
People that have no idea where Belarus is on the map is being conditioned in the fervor.
I see that EU is furious and have banned flights from Belarus using airports in the EU, how does that solve anything? That just make it harder to easen the tensions.
And why didnt EU ban israeli flights past weeks if they claim to represent human rights.
Having said that, there are quite a few things in Belarus that is not nice but the reaction from the west will not solve that, just make the conflict more infected and dangerous.
Two requests.
First – name and location of the Scottish Bastille they are readying for you – expect daily vigils and as weather improves thousands of Scots and us supporters of freedom of real journalism. I may well drag my sorry bones up from London – Covid or not.
Second – will someone mind the blog with daily updates and developing news please.
We’ll get the next £100k gathering …
Well said Craig the hypocrisy is staggering, as for your health, I hope you get better soon take care.