Ryanair ‘hijack’ – Passengers reveal moment blogger knew he ‘faced death penalty’ as Belarus jets swooped to arrest him
A PASSENGER on board the ‘hijacked’ Belarus plane has detailed the chilling moment the exiled blogger realised his time was up.
Nikos Petalis, a Greek passenger who was seated in the middle of the plane, said Roman Protasevich, froze when the pilot announced that the flight was being diverted.
The aircraft, which was carrying the blogger on board was forced to land in the capital Minsk amid fears there was a potential bomb on board.
However, as the plane made the emergency landing, it became clear that the blogger, who was a prominent critic of the Belarus regime, was facing a nightmarish return to his homeland.
As he was taken away by security forces, he told fellow passengers he was "facing the death penalty.";
Describing the experience to Greece’s mega TV on Monday, businessman Pelatis described Protasevich looked 'scared' as his fate was revealed.
“He started grabbing his head as if something bad was going to happen.”
“You looked at him and thought ‘something is going on with him.’”
Pelatis then described how the group of MiG-29 fighter jets – which allegedly had permission from their military chiefs to shoot down the plane - screamed alongside the aircraft as it made the emergency landing.
“Thank God the pilot followed the rules … there is no doubt the plane would have been shot down, the guy is a tyrant,” he said of Belarus’ leader.
“It was like something out of a film. A horror film.”
Protasevich had flown to Greece from Poland where he had been living to attend the annual Delphi Economic Forum.
“He had specifically come to hear [Belarus’ opposition leader] Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya giving a talk at the forum,” a Greek official told Sun Online.
He had posed for pictures with Tikhanovskaya during the conference and posted pictures to social media before flying back.
Protasevich was said to have been living in Lithuania with his Russian girlfriend Sofia Sapega, 23, a law student at the European Humanities University.
Patelis, who has family in Vilnius where he owns a fast –food business, said the passengers were kept on board for an hour before they were allowed to disembark, checked by “guys with dogs” and taken to a waiting room where they were told they couldn’t move.
“We weren’t even allowed, you know, to do our business in the toilet,” he said.
“He was sitting right next to me as if nothing had happened when we were kept waiting there … at some point they came and took him away.”
Another account said Protasevich was distraught when he discovered the destination of the emergency landing.
“Only when the guy found out that we were going to land did he get upset,” said the passenger.
“We were all taken out in fours, and dogs sniffed all our things.
Protasevich “was taken to one side, his belongings were dumped onto the tarmac.
“We asked him what was going on.”
“He said who he was and added, 'This is where the death penalty awaits me.'
"He was already calmer, but shivering.
“An officer was standing next to him all the time, and soon the military simply took him away.”
Reports suggests that there were no explosives found on board as the plane was cleared to continue its journey from Athens to Lithuanian capital Vilnius five hours after it made the emergency stop.
The act to force the landing on false presences has since caused outrage across Europe as Belarus were slated for their “war like” act.
The head of the British Foreign Affairs Committee Tom Tugendhat said: "If it's not an act of war, it's certainly a warlike act."
While, Ireland's Foreign Minister Simon Coveney added: “This was effectively aviation piracy, state sponsored."
Aviation sources in Vilnius later claimed that the plane made an emergency landing due to a conflict on the plane.
"There was a conflict between a passenger and a crew member. It was decided to land the plane in Minsk,” said airport spokeswoman Lina Beisiene."
As the news filtered through about the fake bomb scare, western leaders reacted with outrage and demanded the dissident be set free.
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Foreign secretary Dominic Raab warned Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko must be held to account for "this outlandish action that will have serious implications".
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the forced landing was “completely unacceptable."
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"Any violation of international air transport rules must bear consequences,” she wrote on Twitter.