‘Monitor situation’: DGCA to airways on Belarus airspace

The nation’s aviation security regulator has cautioned Indian airline operators of the incident in Belarus, the place a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was made to power land in Minsk, allegedly to arrest a dissident journalist on board. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has advised airways to “monitor the situation” as quite a lot of airways have began re-routing their flights to keep away from Belarusian airspace.
Several European airways together with Lufthansa, KLM, Finnair and AirBaltic have began skirting Belarusian airspace. Vistara and Air India fly over Belarus for his or her flights to Europe. As per Flightradar24, Vistara flies over Belarus on its flights from Delhi to London, whereas Air India makes use of the airspace to fly to London, Frankfurt, and so forth. “Please ensure fuel planning, (and) take into account a last moment re-route in case overflying Belarus airspace,” DGCA is learnt to have advised airways.
As per Flightradar24: “Most flights that use Belarus’ airspace are just passing through. Since downing of MH17 in eastern Ukraine in 2014, airlines have avoided airspace there, moving flights that would transit Ukraine if on an optimal routing north to Belarus. Most flights transiting Belarus are flying between western Europe and either Russia or Southeast Asia”.
The arrest of journalist Roman Protasevich has resulted in worldwide our bodies reprimanding Belarus. He had taken a Ryanair flight for the 3-hour lengthy journey. However, when the airplane approached the border between Lithuania and Belarus, a MiG-29 fighter intercepted it, and made it land in Minsk. Ryanair mentioned its crew was “notified by Belarus (Air Traffic Control) of a potential security threat on board and were instructed to divert to Minsk”.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) — the UN’s specialised company for civil aviation — mentioned: “ICAO is strongly concerned by the apparent forced landing of a Ryanair flight and its passengers, which could be in contravention of the Chicago Convention. We look forward to more information being officially confirmed by the countries and operators concerned”. It added ICAO’s Council President has referred to as an pressing assembly of the 36 diplomatic representatives to the council on May 27.