May 27, 2021
Last week, when the pilots on a commercial flight headed for Lithuania told passengers they were about to make an unexpected landing in the Belarusian capital of Minsk many were confused — except Roman Protasevich.
The 26-year-old dissident journalist and one Belarus’s biggest enemies sensed what was about to happen.
How and why did Belarus force down the plane and arrest Mr. Protasevich? And what comes next?
On today's episode:
Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times.
Background reading:
- The forced landing of a commercial flight on Sunday has put Belarus and its authoritarian leader, Aleksandr Lukashenko, in a new global spotlight. Here’s what you need to know.
- Disgusted by the brutality of Mr. Lukashenko, Mr. Protasevich bravely embarked at 16 on a life in opposition.
You can listen to the episode here.
My 5 Questions:
- Did you see anything strange before the diversion?
- When did you learn what actually happened?
- What was it like waiting at Minsk Airport?
- How did the Belorussian authorities treated you?
- How has the incident changed you?
Public Contact Information: If Applicable
I have no idea what the protocols are, and my knowledge of aviation is slim to none and I'd wish to know a bit more on this subject.
I've come across this image.
Using google maps to measure distance, it seems like the plane was roughly 30 kilometers away from Lithuania's border when it started diverting, and assuming it was still at flight altitude and cruising speed, according to Google the Boeing 737-800 cruise speed is roughly 940 km/s.
That means, Flight 4978 was roughly 1 minute and 55 seconds away from crossing the border, where Belarusian jet fighters could no longer follow it.
What would happen if Flight 4978 would ignore, or let's say burn time, till it reaches the border? I find it extremely hard to believe they are allowed to take down a civilian aircraft, doesn't make any sense to bomb a plane that has a bomb threat inside of it (which we know is false) espcially in a time frame of less than 2 minutes.
And besides that, even if there was a bomb threat, the most logical thing to do is to land at the nearest airport, which in this case, was the original airport it was intended to land at, couldn't the pilots just claim they're going to land there instead? are they forced to obey fighter jets commands regardless of the situation? what are the protocols for such events?
Hey people, I was wondering if any of you have travelled with Ryanair in the last days and could confirm if they’re accepting the EU Covid Certificate.
I see that Portugal is accepting it but when I called LuxAirport to get a confirmation they told me it’s up to the company to decide, which seems rather strange.
Cheers
UPDATE: Did the PCR anyway but they didn’t ask for it. EU Vaccination Certificate was sufficient.
Hi, so I was interested in hearing people's experiences working as cabin crew members for RyanAir. Did you get to see any places at layovers or you basically get to see only the airports of the places you travel to?
