MINSK, 15 November (BelTA) – Belarus' complaint regarding the violation of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (also known as the Chicago Convention) will be reviewed in January. Director of the Aviation Department of the Belarusian Transport and Communications Ministry Artyom Sikorsky made the relevant statement on the air of the Belarusian TV channel ONT, BelTA has learned.
The official noted that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) had rescheduled the review of two Belarusian issues for January 2022. The review of the Ryanair FR4978 flight incident is one of them. Artyom Sikorsky said: “They say the Belarusian side has submitted a lot of information and they need time to analyze all of it. And they also say they lack certain information. Which one? We are confident they have no onboard data from the aircraft. To be exact, they don't have recordings of the pilots' voices. Poland where the aircraft is registered and Ireland where the aircraft is used have not provided this data.”
Belarus' complaint regarding the violation of the Chicago Convention is the second issue. The convention's Article 11 clearly says that sanctions cannot be enforced depending on nationality. “Flights of the aircraft with Belarus' registration have been banned. We've submitted the complaint and it was supposed to be reviewed on 12 November, however, according to the usual scenario, our Western partners made a protocol virtually overnight, got it approved on their own, removed the complaint from the agenda, and rescheduled it for January,” the official said.
Artyom Sikorsky said the Belarusian side counts on common sense and review of matters of urgent interest. “We hope a final report will be presented and the Belarusian complaint will be reviewed, after which ICAO will take effective measures to lift discriminating sanctions against Belarus,” he said.
