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Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

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Re: Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

#21

Post by sneak »

5cents wrote: post #18
sneak wrote: post #14

And, yet, we didn’t do this to Austria (or any of the other countries in Europe that cancelled use of the airspace) when the plane suspected to be carrying Snowden (but wasn’t, and was actually carrying a head of state) was forced down in Vienna based on a phone call from the US, to be swatted upon landing. Only the “bad guys” are terrorists when they do this. The double standard here in the west is astounding. The p…

This claim is repeated again and again; yet the circumstances and the actual event (there was no forcing down) were very different; see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27256946

A careful reading of the wikipedia page shows the truth. Whether you revoke airspace permits and force the plane down based on fuel reserves, or scramble fighter jets, the net effect is the same: the plane lands before when it was planning to, if it wants to do so in one piece.

Let’s not split hairs here when the precise same political motivation, and the precise same mechanism was used (the threat of fighters if the plane continues).

The fun part is that the whole ruse was an Assange trick, and without Snowden ever touching the aircraft, Assange got the US to tip their hand that they’re more than happy to engage in such shitty and underhanded techniques, even against a head of state.

Re: Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

#22

Post by namdnay »

sneak wrote: post #14

And, yet, we didn’t do this to Austria (or any of the other countries in Europe that cancelled use of the airspace) when the plane suspected to be carrying Snowden (but wasn’t, and was actually carrying a head of state) was forced down in Vienna based on a phone call from the US, to be swatted upon landing. Only the “bad guys” are terrorists when they do this. The double standard here in the west is astounding. The p…

Evo Morales' plane? From what I gathered it wasn't forced down in Austria, it's just that they were refused entry into the airspaces of several countries and the pilots weren't sure about the remaining fuel levels.

Apparently the whole thing was a stunt by Julian Assange? Don't know how true that is

Definitely a bit dodgy though

Re: Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

#23

Post by mopsi »

sneak wrote: post #14

And, yet, we didn’t do this to Austria (or any of the other countries in Europe that cancelled use of the airspace) when the plane suspected to be carrying Snowden (but wasn’t, and was actually carrying a head of state) was forced down in Vienna based on a phone call from the US, to be swatted upon landing. Only the “bad guys” are terrorists when they do this. The double standard here in the west is astounding. The p…

Refusing service to a private flight carrying a politically sensitive person is very different from hijacking a scheduled civilian airliner by threatening to shoot it down if it doesn't cooperate.

Refusing service is very common. For example, air routes in the Middle East can be very long because of countries that can't be flown over due to different alliances: https://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/images/print-e...

Re: Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

#25

Post by sneak »

namdnay wrote: post #22
sneak wrote: post #14

And, yet, we didn’t do this to Austria (or any of the other countries in Europe that cancelled use of the airspace) when the plane suspected to be carrying Snowden (but wasn’t, and was actually carrying a head of state) was forced down in Vienna based on a phone call from the US, to be swatted upon landing. Only the “bad guys” are terrorists when they do this. The double standard here in the west is astounding. The p…

Evo Morales' plane? From what I gathered it wasn't forced down in Austria, it's just that they were refused entry into the airspaces of several countries and the pilots weren't sure about the remaining fuel levels. Apparently the whole thing was a stunt by Julian Assange? Don't know how true that is Definitely a bit dodgy though

> that they were refused entry into the airspaces of several countries

Countries that minutes earlier they were cleared to fly through, and had planned to fly through. Had they ignored the refusal and proceeded as planned? Same ending: fighter jets.

Let’s not pretend here that this is different.

Re: Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

#26

Post by arodyginc »

proxysna wrote: post #16

This affects me directly since i am working outside of Belarus now and rely on air travel to visit my family, still this feels like the only reasonable answer to KGB messing with airlines. I am expecting that most planes to Belarus, from EU are going to be cancelled and people will have to reroute their travel through Moscow. In general it is terrifying how far my country went down the path of turning into another Tu…

[flagged]

Re: Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

#27

Post by Thev00d00 »

iso1631 wrote: post #12

But Ryanair havent https://www.flightradar24.com/RYR7BJ/27cf72bf FR3340 flying from Pafos, Cyprus to Tallin, Estonia, is about to cross from Ukraine into Belarus airspace A route avoiding Belarus would have added at 56 miles to the 1740 mile journey, about 3%. http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=pfo-tll,pfo-EPBP-tll

Ryanair would sell their own mother to get more profits

Re: Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

#28

Post by golergka »

dekoruotas wrote: post #13
maratc wrote: post #8

This will likely have no consequences to the regime in Belarus, while increasing costs to these Baltic airlines. A policy that might achieve something would be if the Baltic states, together with Poland and Ukraine, would close their airspace to Belavia planes, until the detained passenger is delivered to his destination in Vilnius. This will increase costs to Belarusian airlines, which would be a problem to the regi…

This has also been set in motion: https://i.redd.it/elts5rgbg0171.jpg

European diplomats being "strongly concerned" have long become a running joke here in Russia: https://twitter.com/ISEUConcerned

I sincerely hope that this statement finally gets backed up by some decisive action that can put real pressure on these dictators, but I don't get my hopes up.

Re: Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

#29

Post by V-2 »

sneak wrote: post #21
5cents wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This claim is repeated again and again; yet the circumstances and the actual event (there was no forcing down) were very different; see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27256946

A careful reading of the wikipedia page shows the truth. Whether you revoke airspace permits and force the plane down based on fuel reserves, or scramble fighter jets, the net effect is the same: the plane lands before when it was planning to, if it wants to do so in one piece. Let’s not split hairs here when the precise same political motivation, and the precise same mechanism was used (the threat of fighters if the…

Well - they obviously had enough fuel to simply fly back to Russia if Snowden were actually on board.

I'm not saying I support that action - I'm only pointing out these two incidents aren't quite in the same category.

Re: Baltic airlines reroute flights to avoid Belarus airspace

#30

Post by varjag »

proxysna wrote: post #16

This affects me directly since i am working outside of Belarus now and rely on air travel to visit my family, still this feels like the only reasonable answer to KGB messing with airlines. I am expecting that most planes to Belarus, from EU are going to be cancelled and people will have to reroute their travel through Moscow. In general it is terrifying how far my country went down the path of turning into another Tu…

I'm in the same spot. When I was leaving the country after then-"election" in 2006, I had to wait until the engineer I was handing the project over to finished his 30-day prison sentence.

This year even my ever optimistic friends who were never intent to move have been sent packing. The hijacking makes things even worse for the unwillingly growing Belarusian diaspora, but there should not be mucking around. I advocate for the strongest pushback possible, even though anticipating a lacklustre response.

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