AvTalk - Aviation Podcast

AvTalk - Aviation Podcast


AvTalk Episode 113: Ryanair flight 4978 forced to land in Belarus

May 28, 2021

On this episode of AvTalk, we discuss the forcible diversion of a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius to Minsk, Belarus and the ensuing international response.
On 23 May, Ryanair flight 4978 was forcibly diverted by Belarus. Aviation journalist Seth Miller of PaxEx.aero joins us as we discuss what happened, the international reaction, and why all of this matters.
Helpful links

* Flight data for Ryanair flight 4978
* Where Belarus-based airlines can now fly
* Who was flying over Belarus before last week
* Lawfare blog Seth mentions

Other things that happened this week
Supersonic start-up Aerion is no more, SpiceJet is under investigation for an onboard wedding in the middle of a COVID-19 outbreak, Emirates president Sir Tim Clark turns heads again with his comments on the 777X, and the US FAA downgrades Mexico to safety category 2.