Sikorsky: ICAO report on Ryanair flight incident beneath all criticism

As reported by Artem Sikorsky, the Director of the Aviation Department of Belarus’ Ministry of Transport and Communications, the ICAO report on the Ryanair flight incident is beneath all criticism, BelTA reports

The International Civil Aviation Organisation has recently studied two issues: regarding the Ryanair flight incident in Belarus’ airspace on May 23rd, 2021 and the country’s complaint against the actions of some European states that imposed sanctions on Belarus’ civil aviation. The ICAO report on this incident was discussed, and – according to Mr. Sikorsky – ‘it does not stand up to scrutiny’.

“It is categorically unacceptable and discredits ICAO as an international technical body that deals with civil aviation. We fully disagreed with it, and Russia’s official representative and member of the ICAO Council also disagreed with the report – pointing out a number of errors, inaccuracies, non-aviation and non-objective approaches. All ICAO documents say that any investigation is conducted not to find the guilty parties, but to rule out similar cases in the future. Meanwhile, the so-called telephone extremism poses a threat to aviation security now. This is an objective problem, and ICAO should deal with it," Mr. Sikorsky stated.

The report was prepared in January 2022, and its main idea is that the aircraft was not intercepted. “However, it did not satisfy a number of Western countries at that time, and the ICAO team was instructed to highlight all the so-called gaps in this matter following a pressure on their part. However, no additional information was requested from Belarus. At the same time, new data has been included into the final report, which Belarus fully disagrees with. As the ICAO team stated, it obtained data from an air traffic control officer (whose last name is not given) with assistance of the United States and Poland. As a result, the report looks more like pulp fiction, becoming a kind of a second-rate spy novel," the Belarusian official added.

“Many points do not stand up to scrutiny: i.e. the air traffic control officer allegedly had a phone on which he turned on the recorder without taking it out of his pocket. At the same time, it should be understood that a phone can interfere with the operation of complex equipment. The issue of security also matters: a flight dispatcher should not be distracted by a phone, and it is forbidden to have it during work. This is far from the truth and aviation technology, and it is more like a fiction in order to somehow blame Belarus," Mr. Sikorsky stressed.

Representatives of Belarus and Russia expressed doubts that the recording was genuine. “ICAO responded in saying that it lacks money to verify its authenticity, but it takes Poland and the US on their word," Mr. Sikorsky said.

Western countries unanimously supported the charges against Belarus. “Although it is difficult to understand what we are accused of. There was a fact of a false message in a letter, of which the aircraft crew was informed of. The pilot had to head to the nearest airfield, and it was Vilnius then. It was his decision to fly to Minsk," the Director of the Aviation Department emphasised.