There is no evidence of any threats or bomb scares relating to the May 23, 2021 Ryanair FR4978 flight diversion to Minsk, according to previously unseen documents uncovered by the independent Belarus Investigative Alliance.
On 23 May 2021, Ryanair Flight 4978 was diverted by the Belarusian government to Minsk National Airport due to an alleged bomb threat. Two of its passengers, opposition activist and journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, were arrested by authorities.
There is no mention in the internal correspondence of the Belarusia Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) of any emails with threats or bomb scares and no mention of the origin of the order to divert.
Last year, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) confirmed that it was an act of air piracy, for which the Belarusian regime was blamed.
Referencing an incident that occurred in March 2021 at Brest International Airport, the report notes that Belarusian airports response to bomb threats usually takes three days, but in the case of FR4978 on which Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega were flying, it took only a few minutes.
The official investigation was launched on this basis: “On May 23, at 13:00, from the operational alert console of the State Institution “Belaeronavigacia”, a message was received by the Minsk Department of Internal Affairs on Transport from the flight director of the Minsk Air Traffic Service Centre, stating that the signal “Distress” has been announced due to a bomb threat onboard the Boeing 737-800 aircraft of Ryanair, flight “Athens-Vilnius”. At 13:15, the plane landed at the National Airport “Minsk”. The aircraft and luggage were inspected by airport aviation security personnel, as well as patrols of the SPG unit no. 3310, passengers were searched, no explosives were found. 123 passengers, 6 crew members were evacuated, and 54 pieces of luggage (840 kg) were unloaded. The October District Investigation Department initiated a criminal case under part 1, article 340 of the Criminal Code. Officer in charge at the Minsk City Executive Committee Department of Internal Affairs = Lieutenant Colonel of Police Tereshkov K.V.
The MVD enquiry states that 123 passengers were evacuated. This contradicts section 2.1.4 of the ICAO investigation, which says there were 126 passengers on board.
A message recorded in the system at 13:00 authenticates the declared “distress” signal. This and the landing time of the aircraft, are the only things that corresponds to the ICAO report (page 16 of the Investigation Report).
The basis for the “distress” signal was a call at 12:28 from the deputy general director at the airport that a message about a bomb on board had been received at “a number of airports,” including at Minsk National Airport. The only confirmation of the bomb threat arrived at the electronic mailbox of the Minsk airport at 12:56 (page 76 of the report).
The Belarusian authorities claim that there was another message at 12:26, from which only a screenshot remains. The sending of this message could not be confirmed by the Swiss authorities, the country where the servers of the Protonmail mailing service are located.
A call to initiate a criminal case under article 340 of the Criminal Code, knowingly communicating a false message about danger, has not been acted on.
