National News

Belavia comments on reasons its flight to Barcelona turned back

Belavia Director General Igor Cherginets commented on the turning back of the airline's flight headed to Barcelona, BelTA learned.

On 26 May the airline was to perform a regular flight B2869 on the route Minsk-Barcelona-Minsk. More than 50 passengers were on board Embraer 195. The aircraft departed from the airport on schedule. "We had all the authorizations to perform the flight. Spain did not ban Belavia flights. However, the plane had to fly in circles for almost two hours before returning to Minsk," Igor Cherginets said.

As it turned out, the French aviation authorities deactivated the flight plan of this flight in a manual mode without notifying the airline. As the aircraft was gaining altitude, the pilot in command was given this information through the Polish Air Traffic Control. Attempts to coordinate the route with Marseille's Air Traffic Control were unsuccessful. The French air traffic control cited the verbal order of the French prime minister. The French aviation authorities quietly suspended the authorization for Belavia without notifying us. This information was communicated to us by the Polish Air Traffic Control. When we contacted the French Air Traffic Control and asked about the reasons, they said that they had received a phone call from the top authorities of France not to let Belavia into the airspace,” Igor Cherginets said.

The ban on flights between Minsk and Paris, issued earlier by the aviation authorities of France, initially did not include a ban on flying over the airspace of that country. Belavia received an updated ban only at 3:16p.m. on 26 May.

“We tried to find bypasses, other routes. We found one to the south of France, closer to Tunisia. The airspace there is neutral. Of course, air traffic controllers help pilots there, too. We tried to go through that zone, but the French Air Traffic Control refused to let us fly over that neutral airspace in violation of international law,” Igor Cherginets said.

Such actions are contrary to the norms of the Chicago Convention and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Igor Cherginets said.

“Unfortunately, we had to cancel the flight. The passengers, among whom were children, had a very difficult day. By the way, there were only six Belarusians on board. The rest were citizens of other countries: Armenia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Spain, Poland, Italy, France, Malta. It is unclear why these people were punished and why Belavia was punished,” Igor Cherginets said.

“We also planned to take home the stranded Belarusians in Barcelona. It is clear that it is very hard to do that now. Apart from Belarusians, citizens of Poland, Spain, Russia and the United States were going to use our flight to leave Barcelona,” Igor Cherginets said.