Ryanair Flight was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from Athens International Airport , Greece , to Vilnius Airport , Lithuania , operated by Buzz , a Polish subsidiary of the Irish airline Ryanair. On 23 May , while in Belarusian airspace , it was diverted by the Belarusian government to Minsk National Airport due to alleged claims of a Hamas bombing attempt, where two of its passengers, opposition activist and journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega , were arrested by authorities.
The aircraft was allowed to depart after seven hours, reaching Vilnius eight and a half hours behind schedule. On 23 May , Ryanair Flight Athens—Vilnius , [ 3 ] operated by the Polish subsidiary Buzz, [ 4 ] a Boeing carrying six crew members and passengers, [ 5 ] was diverted to Minsk National Airport after ground authorities reported a bomb on board, whilst the aircraft was 45 nautical miles 83 km; 52 mi south of Vilnius and 90 nautical miles km; mi west of Minsk , but still in Belarusian airspace.
The Department of Aviation of Belarus claimed that an email was received in the generic mailbox info airport. We demand that the European Union abandon its support for Israel in this war. A bomb was planted onto this aircraft. If you don't meet our demands the bomb will explode on May 23 over Vilnius. Allahu Akbar. The information later obtained from the email server by the Fact-Finding Investigation Team of the International Civil Aviation Organization showed that such an email had been sent to Minsk Airport at local.
This message was sent to a total of six recipients in separate emails to the airports of Vilnius, Athens, Sofia, Bucharest, Kyiv and Minsk, with the first five sent while FR was flying over Ukrainian airspace, immediately prior to entering Belarusian airspace.
According to the airline, its pilots were notified by Belarusian authorities of "a potential security threat on board" and were instructed to land the aircraft in Minsk. At , air traffic control mentioned an e-mail from terrorists sent to the Minsk airport. O'Leary said that the pilots tried to seek advice from Ryanair but were lied to by Belarusian ATC, who told them company representatives were not answering the phone. According to his press service, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko personally ordered that the flight be re-directed to Minsk with a Belarusian Air Force MiG fighter escort.
