The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has recommended that EU air carriers and non-EU airlines avoid Belarusian airspace, Western media outlets reported on Wednesday, citing the EASA.
Non-EU airlines authorized by the EASA when conducting operations to, from, and within the EU are advised to avoid operating in Belarusian airspace, it said.
The agency cited safety reasons following the May 23 Ryanair flight incident, which called into question the ability of the Belarusian authorities to provide safe air navigation services.
A Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius was forced to land at the Minsk airport while passing through Belarus’s airspace on May 23. It was reported that the plane landed after the Belarusian security services were warned of a bomb threat. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered that a MiG-29 fighter jet be scrambled to shadow the passenger plane, which was carrying Roman Pratasevich, editor of the Telegram channel Belarus Golovnogo Mozga (Belarus of the Brain) and former editor of the Telegram channel Nexta, both designated as extremist in Belarus, and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, a Russian citizen and student of the European Humanities University based in Vilnius. The Belarusian authorities have detained both of them.
