Belarus air traffic controllers ‘tricked’ Ryanair pilot to land in Minsk over fears ‘bomb’ could be activated

The Ryanair pilot forced to land his plane in Belarus was allegedly told by air traffic controllers in Minsk that an onboard ‘bomb’ would be activated if the plane flew on to Lithuania.

Transcripts published online Tuesday by Belarusian transport authorities — but subsequently taken offline — appeared to fill in crucial details about the sequence of events that led to Ryanair flight FR 4978 being diverted to Minsk.

The released conversation suggests Belarusian air control tricked the pilot with the warning about the bomb being activated if the plane flew over its original destination, Vilnius.

At the time of the warning, the Boeing 737 was considerably closer to Vilnius than the Belarusian capital.

In incomplete fragments of the alleged exchanges, Belarusian ground control first passes on the warning, which it claims had been received from “security services,” then recommends a diversion to Minsk.

The pilot asks for a new flight path, and requests more information about who was recommending the detour — the departure airport, Athens, or destination airport, Vilnius. Told it was Minsk who recommended the change, the pilot then asks how air traffic control assessed the level of threat: code green, yellow, amber or red.

“They say the code is red”, the controller replies.