Belavia’s B2869 took off from Minsk Airport at 13:29 local time (12:29 CET) and headed for Poland.
–
Right at the border, above the town of Kobryn, the plane turned and began circling. The pilot maneuvered this way for almost two hours, after which the people watching the radar began to wonder what was happening.
–
According to the Polish website Pasazer, there were legal doubts about the sanctions imposed by the European Union on Belarus. Leaders of the 27 agreed on Monday to ban Belarusian airlines Belavia from transiting and landing on EU territory.
–
As the footage from the FlightRadar24 flight radar shows, the crew finally decided to turn the plane back to Minsk after about two hours. According to available data, he landed at the airport at 15:46 local time (14:46 CET).
–
The reason for the closure of the Belarusian planes is the behavior of the local authoritarian regime, which on Sunday used a fighter to force a Ryanair plane on a route from Greece to Lithuania to make an emergency landing in Minsk to arrest journalist and opposition activist Raman Pratasevich.
–
Most Western airlines have already stated that they will avoid Belarusian airspace.
—
:quality(80)/cdn-kiosk-api.telegraaf.nl/da537038-be32-11eb-aa75-0218eaf05005.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
