“Sometimes when we fly, we wonder who will share our flight,”
admitted Ed, a Lithuanian passenger on the Athens Vilnius flight last Sunday. A movie star ? A gangster? In any case, there was no indication that Ryanair flight FR4978 to Vilnius counted among its some 170 passengers a political dissident soon to be worried by the Belarusian authorities. It was ten o'clock and Ed was expecting to land in the Lithuanian capital soon, when the plane suddenly veered off course.
“He made an almost complete U-turn, very abruptly when we were already at low altitude. It was quite astonishing, but nobody said anything ”
, continues Ed, back with his companion on vacation in Greece.
Read also: Belarus: anger of European states after the interception of an airliner carrying a political opponent
The explanation, which intervenes a quarter of an hour later, is not really one:
"the plane must land urgently in Minsk",
announces the pilot.
Surprising, since the plane was then closer to Vilnius than to the Belarusian capital.
“But we didn't know.
The passengers remained rather calm, ”
says Arthur Six, a 25-year-old Frenchman on board.
With the exception of a passenger, suddenly very agitated.
“A young man two rows in front of me got up in a panic,
explains Arthur Six.
He went to see the flight attendants.
They chatted in Russian for almost a minute, then was asked to go back to sit.
"
Roman Protassevich got up totally panicked
Arthur Six, a French passenger
Roman Protassevich then grabbed his things, grabbed his computer before handing it to his girlfriend, according to Ed, sitting a few seats away.
“He was very nervous.
He looked like he wanted to run away.
His neighbors asked him what made him feel like that.
He replied that it was because of him that we went to Minsk, and that he risked the death penalty "
, Ed remembers.
" Type my name on google, you will see "
, the Belarusian journalist would then have added. , nervous.
Read also: Who is Roman Protassevich, the Belarusian influential journalist arrested by Minsk?
At the other end of the plane, Perrine, a Frenchwoman returning from a trip to the Greek islands, did not understand the announcements and is happy to have arrived in Vilnius.
“No one explained anything.
The plane stopped on the tarmac, guided by a sort of ballet car
,
”she
explains.
“There was great silence on the plane”.
Soldiers, police, fire engines surround the device, still without explanation.
“It was getting scary.
We were stuck in the plane for about 40 minutes, ”
says Arthur.
The young man thinks of a technical problem with the plane, Perrine then evokes a drug control.
Read also: Belarus indicted after the hijacking of a Ryanair plane
Detained 5 hours without explanation
Passengers are then ordered to get off the plane in groups of four. At the foot of the aircraft, their luggage is sniffed for a long time by dogs.
“Then we were put on buses for a long, long time. The opponent has passed like us. They came back to check him a second time on the bus, and a policeman stayed with him,
”Arthur continues. He is stopped in the long corridors of the airport, where passengers are checked and rechecked.
“Two policemen came, and this time they took him away for good.
"
One, two, three and soon four hours pass in the boarding gate where the passengers have been confined. The premises are sealed by armed police. Perrine then understands that she is not in Lithuania, where a connection to Paris awaits her.
“I was worried about missing the second plane when another Frenchwoman told me we were in Minsk. I understood absolutely nothing, ”she
admits. The many police officers remain silent on questions. There are still phones to know a little more, and the whispers between the passengers. “
We discussed among ourselves, we tried to cut all the pieces of the puzzle. This is where we started to hear about the bomb threat,
”says Perrine. Gradually, the passengers understand the farce that has been played on them.
“In retrospect, it didn't hold up.
The police looked rather calm and the firefighters stayed away from the aircraft.
Would they have left us locked in the plane if there was a bomb inside?
"Ed continues."
If they act like that when there's a bomb on a plane, it's a little light.
They had no equipment, nor a team of deminers, ”
says Arthur.
Leave without him?
The announcement of the arrest of Roman Protassevich goes around Europe and the boarding lounge where the passengers are still confined. “
Several Lithuanians have raised the idea of refusing to leave without him. But there were families who were patient, and we did not know what trouble we were risking here in Belarus "
, explains Ed.
" I did not even know that Belarus was a dictatorship. We had the impression of being held prisoners, without knowing exactly from whom and why, ”
Perrine remembers.
5:39 p.m. The case of the flight FR4978 outraged Europe and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian denounced an "
unacceptable hijacking"
.
"All passengers on this flight, including any Belarusian opponents, must be allowed to leave #Belorussia without delay
," he adds. The plane finally leaves for Vilnius, where the passengers are greeted by Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte. With the feeling
“of having played in a bad action movie in Soviet times,”
Ed sighs grimly.