Belarus scrambles jet to force plane to land and arrests opponent, sparking fury
The Hindu
Data from the flightradar24.com website showed the plane was diverted just two minutes before it was due to cross into Lithuanian airspace from Belarus.
Authorities in Belarus scrambled a fighter jet and flagged what turned out to be a false bomb alert to force a Ryanair plane to land on Sunday and then detained an opposition-minded journalist, drawing criticism from across Europe. The dramatic incident saw a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet escort a Ryanair-operated passenger plane flying from Athens to Lithuania. The plane was instead suddenly diverted to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where authorities detained journalist RomanProtasevich who had been on board. Data from the flightradar24.com website showed the plane was diverted just two minutes before it was due to cross into Lithuanian airspace from Belarus.More Related News