MINSK, 26 October (BelTA) – The Aviation Department of the Belarusian Transport and Communications Ministry has contacted the ICAO Council with a request for assistance with getting onboard instrumental data from the aircraft for the sake of investigating the Ryanair flight incident, BelTA has learned.
The ICAO Council reviewed an intermediate report from the team in charge of investigating how Ryanair's FR4978 flight happened to land in Minsk on 23 May. During the discussion about the report it was mentioned that Belarus had provided a large amount of documents, audio and video materials and the investigation team still needs more time to ascertain all the facts. It was also noted they were unsure the team would be able to prepare the final report during the current 224th session and the report might be postponed to the next session – February 2022.
Director of the Aviation Department of the Belarusian Transport and Communications Ministry Artyom Sikorsky once again asked the ICAO Council for assistance with acquiring instrumental data from the aircraft. “The data is needed to find out why the pilot in command of the aircraft decided to land in Minsk. The materials will be added to results of the investigation by the interagency working group [in charge of investigating the incident] and will also be forwarded to Belarus' Investigative Committee for a criminal investigation,” the Aviation Department noted.
The ICAO Council urged all countries to assist each other with the investigation.
During the session the ICAO Council looked into Belarus' complaint about the violation of the Chicago Convention by a number of countries, which had introduced discriminatory sanctions against Belarus. The ICAO Council agreed to include the review of this complaint within the framework of article 54j of the Chicago Convention to the agenda of the current 224th session.
