On 18 July, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Council at its extraordinary meeting adopted the report on the ICAO investigation into the forced landing in Minsk of the Polish aircraft (FR 4978), on route from Athens to Vilnius in May 2021. What followed was the arrest of, among others, the Belarusian oppositionist Raman Pratasevich, who was on board.

In its decision on the report, the ICAO Council acknowledged that the evidence presented to it clearly shows that the actions of the Belarusian authorities were in breach of international civil aviation rules (the Chicago Convention and the Montreal Convention) and that the Belarusian authorities deliberately communicated a false bomb threat in order to cause the Ryanair plane to land in Minsk, which endangered its passengers.

Poland, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Civil Aviation Authority and the National Public Prosecution Service, cooperated closely with the ICAO’s Fact-Finding Investigation Team, which visited our country several times. The evidence provided by Poland to ICAO experts was used in the preparation of the final version of the report and served as a basis for its key findings.

We are satisfied to note that the ICAO report, based on the findings of independent international experts, has confirmed a number of acts by the Belarusian authorities for which there is no justification. The materials included in the report make it unequivocally evident that the aviation sanctions imposed by the EU (and other countries) on Belarus in 2021 were adequate, and that they were indeed introduced in response to an act of unlawful interference.

Poland strongly supports the decision that the report be forwarded by the Secretary General of ICAO to the Secretary-General of the United Nations for any appropriate action.

Poland is ready to continue international cooperation on follow-up measures aimed at deploring this aviation incident, which was politically motivated by the Belarusian regime, and at preventing any other such incident from happening in the future.

The international community should continue to have it as its overriding goal to ensure global aviation security.

 

Łukasz Jasina
MFA Press Spokesperson