By Benjamin Katz and Daniel Michaels
Lithuanian and Polish investigators probing a diverted Ryanair
flight over Belarus haven't yet decoded information held in the
plane's black box amid early frustration with the airline's
cooperation and conflicting narratives by several governments
involved.
Like many aircraft-related probes, investigators believe the
plane's black box -- which holds devices that store operational
data and cockpit audio -- could hold critical information about
what happened on May 23 over Belarus. But unlike in investigations
involving crashes, the plane and crew are safe, and the aircraft's
black box has been available to investigators for almost a
week.
Meanwhile, sometimes-competing jurisdictions in the probe and
political sensitivities over what has become an international
incident have made the investigation more complex than most.
"Most investigations start from a premise of determining what
should have happened, then examine what did happen" and then
reconcile the two and draw lessons learned, said Conor Nolan,
chairman of the Virginia-based Flight Safety Foundation, which
advocates for air safety. "In this case, we cannot easily determine
what should have happened because it is far from clear how reliable
any of the source data is."
Lithuania and Poland haven't yet determined where they will ship
the black box for analysis, saying they are looking for a country
that won't appear to be politically biased. Lithuania, where the
plane landed after its stop in Minsk, has opened a criminal probe.
Officials there said they have interviewed passengers and debriefed
the cockpit and cabin crew. The plane and crew returned Saturday to
London's Stansted Airport, Ryanair's biggest base.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on May 23 he had
scrambled a jet fighter to intercept the plane after receiving a
threat of a bomb aboard. While the Ryanair plane was on the ground
in Minsk, authorities arrested a prominent Belarus dissident aboard
and detained his girlfriend.
Details about the bomb threat have been widely discredited, but
exactly what happened between Belarus authorities and Ryanair
pilots is still unknown. Ryanair has said ground control gave the
pilots no choice but to divert from their original destination of
Vilnius, Lithuania, to Minsk. The airline's chief executive said he
believed state security officers were aboard the flight as part of
what he called a preplanned hijacking.
The plane departed from Athens, and Greece's prime minister
weighed in Friday, disputing Ryanair's account and saying there was
no evidence agents working for Belarus boarded the plane. Belarus
has said it was acting according to international protocols to a
bomb threat.
Belarus released a transcript of communication between traffic
controllers and the plane which portrayed the pilots repeatedly
questioning controllers' recommendation for the jet to land in
Minsk.
Complicating the investigation are the multiple governments
involved. The aircraft is owned by Dublin, Ireland-based Ryanair
Holdings PLC, but is registered via a subsidiary in Poland.
According to rules governing international aviation investigations,
that means Poland should lead a probe.
Greece, as the country of the flight's origin, is allowed to
participate in the probe, as is Ireland, where Ryanair is based.
Investigators from any country who had nationals on the flight are
also allowed to take part.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is part of the probe because
American citizens were aboard. "The Department of Justice,
including the FBI, is working closely on this matter with our
European counterparts," a spokesperson said.
Jurisdiction over a criminal probe is less clear-cut, as is the
role individual countries can play, deepening the complexity. The
International Civil Aviation Organization, an arm of the United
Nations, is also investigating.
Lithuania and Poland have said they would decide this week where
to send the data and voice recorders. Neither country has the
technical ability to do the analysis. They have said they prefer a
third-party state with no connection to Belarus or Ryanair.
It isn't clear if information from the black box will answer all
the questions investigators have. One concern is that the cockpit
voice recorder typically doesn't store recordings for longer than
two hours. It isn't clear if the relevant portion of the flight is
still accessible, since the plane continued on to its final
destination, Lithuanian authorities said. It may be that the
dialogue concerning the diversion was overwritten by that later
flight.
On Friday, Rolandas Kiskis, the chief of the Lithuanian Criminal
Police Bureau, said he was frustrated with Ryanair's initial
cooperation in the investigation.
"Cooperation is ongoing," he said. "But, to be honest, we and
the prosecution service believe it could be faster and more
intensive." By Saturday, the police said the company had come back
with more information. A spokeswoman for Ryanair declined to
comment.
The cooperation of Belarus is also in doubt. So far, Lithuanian
police have received what they called a cursory response from
Belarusian law-enforcement agencies via Interpol channels. Mr.
Lukashenko on Friday met with Russian President Vladimir Putin,
carrying a black briefcase filled with documents he said support
his country's account of the incident.
Mr. Lukashenko's office didn't immediately respond to a request
for comment about what the Belarusian president revealed to Mr.
Putin. The Kremlin declined to comment on what the Russian
president was told.
Margiris Meilutis in Vilnius, Lithuania contributed to this
article.
Write to Benjamin Katz at ben.katz@wsj.com and Daniel Michaels
at daniel.michaels@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 30, 2021 13:36 ET (17:36 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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