The Daily - The Saga of Ryanair Flight 4978

Episode Date: May 27, 2021

Last week, when the pilots on a commercial flight headed for Lithuania told passengers they were about to make an unexpected landing in the Belarusian capital of Minsk many were confused — except Roman Protasevich.The 26-year-old dissident journalist and one Belarus’s biggest enemies sensed what was about to happen.How and why did Belarus force down the plane and arrest Mr. Protasevich? And what comes next? Guest: Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times. Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. Background reading: The forced landing of a commercial flight on Sunday has put Belarus and its authoritarian leader, Aleksandr Lukashenko, in a new global spotlight. Here’s what you need to know.Disgusted by the brutality of Mr. Lukashenko, Mr. Protasevich bravely embarked at 16 on a life in opposition.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Hey, it's Michael. For the past four years, I've hosted this show pretty much without fail, five days a week, and I'm not going anywhere. But I had a baby, so for the next few months, I won't be working every day, giving you a chance to hear from a broader set of voices within the show, including Astead Herndon, Sabrina Tavernisi, and Kevin Roos. My thanks to our guest hosts, the Daily Team, and, as always, to you for listening. From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today, the story of Ryanair Flight 4978.

Sabrina Tavernisi spoke with our colleague Anton Troianovsky about why the leader of Belarus forced the plane to land, the passenger he was after, and what may happen next. It's Thursday, May 27th. Anton. Sabrina. Hi. Sabrina. Hi. Hello. It's been a pretty crazy week for you on your beat with the story of this plane in Belarus.

Tell me what happened inside the plane. Start from the beginning. So this is Sunday. This is Sunday. It's a typical European low-cost flight operated by the Irish-based airline Ryanair from Athens to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, with more than 120 passengers on board from all over Europe, as well as U.S. citizens. And toward the end of the flight, as the plane is flying over Belarus, the pilot gets radioed from Belarusian air traffic control. And a Belarusian air traffic controller tells him, there's a bomb threat to your plane.

We recommend you turn around and land in Minsk. Minsk being the capital of Belarus. you turn around and land in Minsk, Minsk being the capital of Belarus. The pilots, from what we know, aren't sure at first what to do. You know, it's also a bit unusual that the air traffic control of a country that's neither the departure point nor the destination of the flight would be informing you about a bomb threat. It's very strange. It's very strange. And the pilots actually get in touch with Ryanair operations on the ground,

according to Lithuanian investigators, and ask them what to do. And then they eventually agree to go back to Minsk, even though at this point they're closer to the city of Vilnius than they are to the Belarusian capital. As this is happening, a fighter jet takes off from a Belarusian air force base and heads toward the plane. We don't know yet how close that Belorussian fighter jet got, but we know there was a fighter jet scrambled to escort this plane back to Minsk. A fighter jet, my God. What do the passengers know about what's going on this whole time?

They don't know anything at first. During all the flights, the flight was normal. Passengers later would talk about what they remembered. I mean, like I said, this was a regular flight. The process of getting ready for landing had already begun. At one moment, we just change the direction of flight and we go down and then to the left. And then suddenly this plane makes a really sharp turn, a U-turn, a kind of turn that passengers on commercial flights don't normally experience. And they weren't given a clear explanation as to what was going on from what we understand. And then about 15 minutes later... We received an announcement from the captain saying, oh, we received a call from

a bureau within the airport saying that the pilot comes on the intercom and says the plane is being diverted to Minsk. Now, many passengers still don't really know what to make of this, but then there's one passenger on board who clearly does know what's going on. There's a young man who, according to what passengers recall, suddenly becomes frightened, even panicked. Some passengers recalled he's actually getting his laptop and his phone and giving it to the young woman he's traveling with. One passenger asks him, what's going on? And according to several people on the plane, he responds,

the death penalty awaits me in Belarus. Whoa. So who is this guy, Anton? His name is Roman Protasevich. He's 26 years old. He's a dissident journalist from Belarus who's been living in exile since 2019. And the Belarusian state considers him one of its biggest enemies. So Anton, you have this dissident who's just really panicking on this flight.

And the plane has just made this incredibly sharp U-turn. No one knows what's going on except for the dissident. So what happens next? So eventually, the plane lands at the Minsk airport. So after 15 minutes or after all this procedure, we landed in Minsk. It taxis to a section of the tarmac away from the terminal. And we have seen a lot of stuff from Belarus. It was like fire machines and police machines.

It's surrounded by soldiers, by airport workers, by officials with bomb-sniffing dogs. And then for half an hour or so, no one is allowed to get off the plane. So at that point, passengers are thinking, if this really is a bomb threat, it's certainly strange that we're not being taken off the plane immediately. Then the passengers are taken off the plane in groups of five. Their luggage is spread out on the tarmac in kind of a grid pattern. They have a bomb-sniffing dog go through all of it. There's soldiers in green camouflage, bulletproof vests, helmets, overseeing this rather odd scene.

And then the passengers see Protasevich and his girlfriend, who's traveling with him, being taken away to the terminal by security officials. And that's the last that they saw of him. So do they actually find a bomb? No, no, they don't find a bomb. The Belarusian government comes out pretty soon saying that this was a false bomb threat and that they're investigating even where this bomb threat came from. But as news of Protasevich's arrest spreads through social media,

it becomes very clear to everyone what this was actually about. We'll be right back. So, Anton, the story of what happened to this Ryanair flight is incredibly strange. I mean, it's a commercial flight. It's two European capitals it's flying between. And then suddenly it makes a U-turn. There's a fighter jet outside. And then suddenly it makes a U-turn.

There's a fighter jet outside. And it all looks, in retrospect, that this was just a big ploy to get this dissident. It had nothing to do with a bomb. So why would Belarus go through all this trouble to get this guy? Well, you really have to go back to even to the 90s to answer that question. Belarus is a former Soviet republic in Eastern Europe between Russia and the European Union. It's been run since 1994 by an authoritarian leader named Alexander Lukashenko. He's been called Europe's last dictator, and he's actually embraced that title. Last summer, he claimed victory after a fraudulent election that sparked protests across the country. Unprecedented outrage over an election demonstrators say was stolen. By the president, they're demanding step down.

Over my dead body, says Alexander Lukashenko. Hundreds of thousands of people came out demanding that Lukashenko resign. Lukashenko's refusal to step down has set the stage for a showdown with protesters who say they have nothing left to lose. I remember those protests. It was all of these people in public squares and their flags and posting videos on social media. And I remember thinking, wow, is this guy about to lose power?

Yeah, it was a remarkable moment for a post-Soviet country. The white, red, white flags of the opposition were everywhere. Women were coming out dressed all in white and with white flowers lining up in memory of the protesters who had died. And those protests were organized and galvanized in large part by an account on the social network Telegram that this guy on the airplane, Protasevich, was helping run out of Warsaw. Got it. FJC! FJC! FJC!

And this particular channel that Protasevich was helping run had more than 2 million followers at the height of the protests. And this is in a country of 9 million people. Wow, that's a huge number. It's a huge number. And this Telegram account was constantly sharing information about the injustices of the Lukashenko regime. And it was also literally organizing the protests, saying where should people go at what time, even giving advice on how to resist the police. So this Telegram account played a really big role. And that really explains why for Lukashenko, Protasevich was an enemy of the state. And of course, those protests happened in August and September, but Lukashenko was able to hold on.

And he responded to those protests with really extraordinary repression. Many thousands of Belarusians were jailed. There's been dissidents who have died in prison in strange circumstances. And Belarus was already an authoritarian state for years, but it became even more so an authoritarian state in these last months. And you now have this exiled community of dissidents who are based in Lithuania, in Poland, in Ukraine. Among them is Protasevich. He's even been put on a terrorist watch list by the Belarus Intelligence Service. So you can see that he in particular has a target on his back. Okay, so now I think I understand a little bit better

why the Belarusian state would bring down this plane and detain Protasevich. So Lukashenko goes through all this trouble. The plane comes down. How does the international community react? and detain Protasevich. So Lukashenko goes through all this trouble. The plane comes down. How does the international community react? At first, it was just shock. You know, the idea that a Boeing 737 commercial airliner flying between two EU capitals could be brought down in order for a dissident aboard to be arrested

was not really something that I think a lot of people had imagined would be possible. Western governments have called it air piracy and state terrorism. It's an act that is equal to state air piracy. The Greeks called it a state hijacking. An unprecedented act of state terrorism. The Prime Minister of Poland called it an act of state terrorism. Roman Protasevich must be released immediately. You had Germany and France, obviously the most influential countries in the EU.

This unacceptable act, this violation of international law, promises that there would be consequences. And a firm reaction. And then Monday night, we have a regularly scheduled meeting of EU leaders in Brussels. Madam President, you have the floor. Yes, thank you. So the president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, comes to the podium. Belarus used its control over its airspace in order to perpetrate a state hijacking.

Starts by condemning Belarus for what happened on Sunday. Therefore, the safety and security of flights through Belarus airspace can no longer be trusted. And the council will adapt measures to ban overflies of the EU airspace. And she also called on all EU-based airlines to stop flying over Belarus. She called on EU airports not to accept planes from Belarus. So essentially cutting Belarus's direct air links with Western Europe. This is an attack on democracy. This is an attack on freedom of expression. And this is an attack on European sovereignty. What does that mean for Belarusians?

Well, it may not sound like much, but it's actually a big deal. Ukraine, which is Belarus' southern neighbor, also went along with the flight ban. The land borders are also largely closed right now because of COVID. And that means that this country that, if you look on a map, is in the middle of Europe, is now disconnected from Europe by and large. And so this is a country where there are so many families that have friends and relatives living abroad. At this point, they essentially can't get out of their country

unless they go east and go through Russia, which is lengthy and costly. But looking at this from the outside, the flight ban feels like a step that very much affects ordinary citizens, who I imagine have no responsibility for what happened this weekend. So what else could the international community do to punish Lukashenko? I'm thinking about, you know, harsher types of economic sanctions, say banning EU companies from doing business in Belarus, things like that.

Well, there are already sanctions that the EU imposed last year on Lukashenko and others in the ruling elite in Belarus in response to the protests and the way they were repressed. But the opposition to Lukashenko is now calling for more sanctions, for stronger ones, including ones that would hit state-owned companies and more directly hit the economic interests of people in the ruling elite in Belarus. But there's a risk that these sanctions could push Belarus into an even more authoritarian direction, that they could isolate Belarus even more from the West,

and that they could push it even closer to its biggest ally, Russia. that they could push it even closer to its biggest ally, Russia. Russia, right. So how does Russia fit in here? Well, Russia is in the background of essentially everything that happens in Belarus. Russia is Belarus's biggest ally. It's its biggest trading partner. It's its biggest neighbor to the east. And the two countries have a really symbiotic relationship where for Lukashenko, Russia is the most important source of oil and gas at a cheap price as well as financing. While for Putin, Belarus is really important because Putin sees Russia as being encroached upon by an aggressive and expanding

NATO. And Belarus is kind of this last buffer between Russia and the West, protecting Russia's interests in Europe. Okay, so Anton, I think I understand this. The EU is in a kind of difficult spot. Because if it isolates Belarus too much, then that effectively pushes Belarus more toward Russia, which is something that they don't want to do because they would much rather see less Russian influence in the region. That's right. And so although the EU has imposed this flight ban and they have said that they want to impose further sanctions, they haven't yet implemented new financial sanctions against Belarusian individuals or companies. So Anton, after everything that's happened over the past few days, you know, this brazen move to arrest Pratisevich by Belarus, the difficult place the EU is in and deciding how to respond to that, what do you take away from all of this?

Well, you really get the sense of how these international norms that we take for granted are continuing to be eroded. You know, when you get on a plane on an international flight, you don't expect a country that happens to be in your flight path 30,000 feet below you to bring that plane down because someone else on board happens to be a dissident that's wanted in that country. That's just not something that's ever crossed my mind when I've flown internationally. And I think at least here in Eastern Europe and probably around the world, this is now going to be something that is more on people's minds. There are obviously countries all over the world that would be interested in tracking down a dissident who's living somewhere else. So in a world that really depends on international commerce, that depends on the ease of international travel.

Situations like this can undermine a whole range of things in the way the world works. And what about the dissident in the middle of all of this, the guy from the plane, Protasevich? Do we know what happened to him after he was taken off the plane? Do we know if he's okay? So we didn't hear anything from him for 24 hours or so. He didn't get access to lawyers.

And then on Monday night, a video appears online, a 29-second video of Protasevich sitting in jail at a wooden table with a pack of cigarettes, saying that his health is okay, that he's being treated well and that he is giving confessional testimony in the criminal case against him for stirring mass unrest in Belarus last summer. This was a type of video that has actually become rather common in Belarus over the last year, which is these confessional videos that the security services have been forcing dissident detainees to record while in jail. To me, he looked just shocked and exhausted. There were people who said it looked like he had

some kind of makeup on, potentially hiding bruises. There was no way to determine for sure. But it was clear that this was a man who was speaking under duress, under the control of the Belarusian security services in the central detention center of Minsk. So we know that he was alive as of Monday, but beyond that, given the sort of black hole that these Belarusian detention centers are,

there's almost nothing that we can say now about his condition or what kind of future he faces. Anton, thank you very much. Thank you, Sabrina. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. On Wednesday, President Biden ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate the origins of the coronavirus. ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate the origins of the coronavirus. Today, the president asked the intelligence community to redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion.

Reversing his previous position that such an investigation should be conducted by the World Health Organization. The Times reports that the order indicates that the White House takes seriously the possibility that the virus may have accidentally leaked from a lab in China, as well as the prevailing theory that it was transmitted to humans by an animal in a natural setting. The WHO seemed to dismiss the lab theory in a report released in March, but the theory has since drawn new attention,

including from prominent researchers. Getting to the bottom of the origin of this pandemic will help us understand how to prepare for the next pandemic and the next one. Today's episode was produced by Rochelle Banja, Robert Jimison, Michael Simon-Johnson, and Rob Zipko. It was edited by Austin Mitchell and MJ Davis-Lynn and engineered by Chris Wood. The Daily is made by Alexandra Lee Young Lisa Chow Eric Krupke Mark George

Luke Vanderplug MJ Davis-Lynn Austin Mitchell Nina Pontuck Dan Powell Dave Shaw Sydney Harper Daniel Guimet

Robert Jimison Mike Benoit Liz O'Balin Aastha Chaturvedi Caitlin Roberts Rochelle Banja Leslie Davis Diana Nguyen Marion Lozano Our theme music is by Special thanks to Sam Dolmick, Theo Belcom, Cliff Levy, Lauren Jackson, Julia Simon, Mahima Chablani, Nora Keller, Sophia Milan, Des Ibequa, Erica Futterman, Wendy Doerr, Will Kaner, and Beth Ann Cables.

That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Bilboro. See you tomorrow.