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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
Michelle Cullen

UN declare bomb threat on Ryanair flight 'deliberately false'

The United Nations has said a bomb warning aboard a Ryanair flight last May was 'deliberately false'.

The warning led to the aircraft being rerouted to Belarus, where journalist Roman Protasevitch and his partner Sofia Sapega were arrested.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) finished the report on the incident earlier this month.

However, despite its findings, the Belarus authorities have maintained that the plane was diverted to Minsk because of the threat of a bomb on board.

07/07/2021 A Ryanair flight prepares to land pictured this afternoon at Dublin Airport as passengers start to travel again. (Collins Agency, Dublin)

The ICAO report confirmed searches of the plane upon departure and arrival did not find a bomb and said: "it is considered that the bomb threat was deliberately false".

However, the report said their investigation "was unable to attribute the commission of this act of unlawful interference to any individual or state."

The report found that Belarus authorities concealed information vital to the investigation and could not explain inconsistencies and said the timeline Belarus gave about the bomb threat email was incorrect.

It also shows exchanges between the Minsk aircraft control tower and the onboard pilots. The crew becomes confused and sceptical about the Belarusian airport's answers to their questions.

The report says it took 30 minutes to clear the plane of passengers, and the pilot was allowed to stay on board despite the bomb threat and that the search for the bomb lasted only 18 minutes.

The French foreign affairs ministry said: "This report sheds light on all the inconsistencies in the Belarusian version of the facts,"

"As a result, the Belarusian regime orchestrated the diversion of a civil plane for the sole reason of arresting an opposition journalist Roman Protasevitch."

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