“On Sunday [23.maijā] Only Minsk National Airport and Gomel Airport worked, ”Sikorsky told the Belarusian television channel STV.
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As reported, on May 23, a Ryanair passenger plane en route from Athens to Vilnius in Belarusian airspace near the Lithuanian border was forced to change course and head to Minsk, where one of its passengers was detained by the Belarusian criminal police. Romano Protasevic, a member of the headquarters of the leader Svetlana Tikhanovska, the founder and former editor-in-chief of the opposition media Nexta
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Sikorsky said that at the time when the flight crew was informed about the “security threat”, the nearest operating airport was Minsk airport, the Belarusian media “TUT.by” reports “Telegram” channel.
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However, Telegram’s Belarus golovnovo mozga has accused Sikorski of lying, pointing out that one plane left Grodno airport on May 23, according to Flightradar.
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From the very beginning, the Belarusian authorities have repeatedly lied about the real reasons for landing.
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It was initially alleged that the aircraft had landed after receiving the threat of an explosion. This information later turned out to be a lie.
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However, this did not prevent Belarus from later claiming that the threat of bombing had been expressed by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. The group categorically denied its involvement.
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Following the forced landing of the plane, a number of European countries closed their airspace on the Belavia national airline, but advised their airlines not to fly over Belarus.
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