There have been several reports of false mining of Ryanair, received via the Swiss anonymous mail service ProtonMail, and they were sent at different times, according to a statement on the website of the Investigative Committee of Belarus.
“It has already been established, to which we draw special attention, that there were several messages about the” mining “of the aircraft received through the Swiss anonymous mail service ProtonMail – at 12.25 and 12.56 (coincides with Moscow time – ed.). the recordings of negotiations with the pilots of the aircraft are being analyzed, and numerous other investigative actions are being carried out”, – the statement says.
The Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius on May 23 urgently landed at the Minsk airport due to a message about mining, which was not subsequently confirmed. This plane was flown by Roman Protasevich, the founder of the Nexta Telegram channel, recognized as extremist in Belarus. He was detained while checking documents on previously initiated criminal cases against him under several articles, including the article “organizing mass riots.” He could face up to 15 years in prison. Following the discussion of Belarus on Monday, EU leaders made a political decision to ban flights of Belarusian aircraft in European airspace, and also recommended European airlines to avoid flying over Belarus. The EU called for new sanctions on Belarus to be adopted as soon as possible in connection with the aircraft incident. Now the decision of the EU leaders needs technical approval at the ministerial level.
Belarus responded by saying that the message about the mining of the plane had been sent to the e-mail of the Minsk airport. The commander of the crew himself decided to land in Minsk, there can be no question of any coercion or turn of the aircraft, said the commander of the Belarusian Air Force and Air Defense Forces Igor Golub. On May 25, the aviation department of the Ministry of Transport of Belarus published a transcript of the conversation with the Belarusian dispatcher of the Ryanair pilot. The decryption does not contain any threats from the dispatcher to the crew.