Minister welcomes decision of International Civil Aviation Organisation to launch investigation into incident with Ryanair flight

Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan TD welcomes the decision of the International Civil Aviation Union (ICAO) to launch an investigation into the incident which took place in Belarus on the 23rd of May involving the coercive forced landing of a Ryanair flight and the detention of a journalist and another passenger.

The Minister joined the Ministers for Transport for Poland and Lithuania in calling for the investigation at a special meeting of the council of ICAO today, which was convened to discuss the situation. The ICAO investigation will establish whether any international law, or established norms and practices were contravened in this case.

Minister Ryan also earlier chaired the closed ministerial and plenary session at the International Transport Forum (ITF) Summit, the annual conference of transport ministers. Ireland currently holds the Presidency of the ITF. There are 63 member countries, including Belarus, who were in attendance at today’s meeting. Several EU countries, along with the US and UK, joined Ireland in calling for swift action to be taken against those responsible for the incident.

Minister Ryan said: “We fully support ICAO’s decision to carry out a transparent and independent investigation into the incident in Belarus and welcome the support of our international colleagues in ensuring this will be done. In representing Ireland at two international transport fora today, I signalled our condemnation of the coercive forced landing of the Ryanair aircraft by the Belarusian authorities and called for the unconditional release of Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega. These unacceptable actions were an attack on European aviation security and put in danger the lives of the passengers and crew as they travelled between two EU capitals.”

The ICAO is due to produce an interim report by the 25th of June.