On the Report of the ICAO Working Group on the case of the “Ryanair” aircraft

On the Report of the ICAO Working Group of the fact-finding investigation into the Ryanair incident in Belarusian airspace on 23 May 2021.

The Republic of Belarus categorically disagrees with the conclusions of the final Report of the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Working Group of the fact-finding investigation concerning the case of the Ryanair aircraft which made an emergency landing in Minsk on 23 May 2021 after receiving anonymous threats about a possible bomb threat to its aircraft, adopted on 18 July 2022 by the ICAO Council.

The Working Group’s Report, as well as its previous version dated 31 January 2022, is still based on incomplete information, as it is stated in the Report. In particular, the Report, as before, lacks information about the interrogation of the pilots of the airliner regarding the reasons for their decision to land in Minsk, whereas other suitable airports were closer.

Moreover, the Working Group alleges a lack of due co-operation from some of the States to which requests have been sent in the framework of the national investigations conducted by a number of States. The Belarusian Side reiterates that so far it has not received a single response to the requests sent in the framework of the national investigation procedure, neither from Switzerland (the place of registration of the e-mail address from which the threatening letters were sent), nor from the other countries involved.

Since the Report's release date of January 31, 2022 the Working Group has not conducted any additional actions with the Republic of Belarus, and has not requested any additional information from the Belarusian authorities.

The use in the Report of an anonymous source, who allegedly is an air traffic controller who worked on May 23, 2021 with flight FR4978 of the airline «Ryanair», to refute the information provided by the official authorities of the Republic of Belarus, does not withstand any criticism.

According to the Belarusian authorities, the real air traffic controller who worked with the flight in the summer of 2021 has not come to work and his exact location is unknown to his employers and the authorities. At the same time, no requests for his tracing have been made by his relatives to the Belarusian law enforcement authorities. The written testimony of the real air traffic controller was duly submitted by the Belarusian authorities to the ICAO, which was not taken into account by the Working Group of the investigation.

The validity of ICAO conclusions is based on the information contained in the allegedly audio-recording made by the alleged air traffic controller (in violation of internal procedures of being at his workplace — the use of mobile phones at the workplace of an air traffic controller is prohibited), without any technical expertise on the authenticity of the recording and the identification of the voices, without the following possibility for comments from the aviation authorities of the party, whose action the anonymous source discredits, as intended by the organizers of this fake, brings the ICAO as the international technical body for civil aviation into disrepute.

In the current political context of continuing brutal military pressure of the USA, the European Union and some other countries affiliated with them on the legitimate authorities of the Republic of Belarus through political and economic prohibitions and restrictions of relations with Belarus, including on flights of the Belarusian national air carrier in their airspace, no information from the above mentioned countries should be taken for granted and even less be attached to the ICAO materials without a reliable and generally acknowledged confirmation of their authenticity.

The Belarusian Side states that the content of the alleged audio recording provided by the United States authorities to the Working Group, allegedly made by an air traffic controller, is a fraud and a forgery, just as the white powder in a test tube was in the hands of United States Secretary of State Powell at one of the UN Security Council meetings during the events connected with the United States invasion of Iraq.

In the absence of other evidence, the alleged audio recording of the air traffic controller's conversations in the flight control room of Minsk airport has the sole purpose of demonstrating the responsibility of the Belarusian authorities for the incident involving «Ryanair» flight FR4978.

It is obvious that the alleged audio recording from the alleged air traffic controller accusing the Belarusian authorities appeared at the most convenient moment to ensure the desired result in the Working Group’s Report: to justify the illegal actions of the United States, European Union member countries and some other countries to restrict the flights of the Belarusian national airline «Belavia» and thereby violate dozens of multilateral and bilateral agreements in the field of civil aviation.

The approach demonstrated by the ICAO Council in the context of the Working Group’s Report is biased, adopted under clear pressure of a particular group of countries, and calls into question the organization's ability to ensure aviation security in general in the future independently without external interference. The abuse of ICAO's mandate is evident.

While accepting such «reports» under pressure of the West, ICAO violates the right to freedom of movement not only of the Belarusian citizens, but also the citizens of all other states, which is contrary to basic international human rights documents.

The Report is full of mistakes, inaccuracies, non-aviation and biased approaches.

The most obvious of them is that Belarus was accused of allegedly forcing an aircraft to land, but at the same time the Working Group admitted that there was no escort, interception or forced landing of a «Ryanair» aircraft by a military aircraft in Belarusian airspace. Consequently, the commander of the foreign aircraft personally made the decision to land at Minsk National Airport, despite the fact that at the time of the decision according to the radar information it was about 90 km to Vilnius airport and approximately 180 km to Minsk National Airport. Such decision was taken by the pilot in violation of the Ryanair Aviation Safety Guidelines, which stipulate that when the «red» signal is declared, the aircraft commander shall land at the nearest suitable airport (in this situation that airport was Vilnius).

The practice of double standards and desire to impose only one's agenda can also be clearly seen in relation to the issue initiated by the Republic of Belarus in the ICAO Council regarding the ineligibility to impose restrictions on the use of airspace and sanctions against the Belarusian air carrier. The refusal to consider this issue demonstrates the unconcealed desire of the West to discredit Belarus as a reliable partner in international aviation in order to exclude the Belarusian aviation industry from the international aviation segment through unfair competition.

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