Forced landing in Belarus was ’state-sponsored hijacking’ - O’Leary

Michael O’Leary says the forced diversion of a Ryanair flight to Belarus was a “state-sponsored hijacking“. The airline’s CEO says it appears authorities removed a journalist and his travelling companion from the plane, while they also believe there were some KGB agents on board the flight. The plane - which was flying from Italy to Lithuania - was escorted by a Belarusian fighter jet after reports it had explosives on board, but none were found. It was forced to divert from Minsk, where an opposition blogger - Roman Protasevich - was arrested. European leaders will discuss a response to the incident today, after several officials described it as “utterly unacceptable“. Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has described it as “aviation piracy that’s state-sponsored“. On Newstalk Breakfast, Mr O’Leary said he thinks it’s the first time such an incident has happened to a European airline. He said: “This was a case of state-sponsored hijacking… state-sponsored piracy. “I can’t say much about it because