The air traffic controller who landed a Ryanair plane in Minsk fled Belarus to another country



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After Oleg Galegov, the now air dispatcher at Minsk airport, a Rynair plane landed and security services arrested Raman Pratasevičius, a wanted opposition figure, and his friend, the man on leave, was no longer listed on the job.

After the May 23 event, Galegov asked for a vacation in June. According to Belareonavigacija employees, they tried to contact a colleague several times, but all the phones were turned off. They say the man possibly went to Georgia, where he is from and will now live in his hometown.

Colleagues also claimed that the man had canceled all of his social media accounts.

“I think he decided to take out insurance and left. The government does not tell us anything, but should we be concerned about human self-determination? I think it is his will. He is a great specialist, he will find work in another country without many problems. As far as I know He’s in Georgia, “said a colleague of O. Galegov from a state-owned company.

Galegov arrived in Belarus in 2010

This information was commented on by Belaeronavigacija herself.

Deputy General Manager Ivan Gerlovsky said for the first time that O. Galegov had been on vacation since June and knew nothing about his disappearance or dismissal.

After asking why the organization has such a long vacation, I. Gerlovskis clarified: “Yes, indeed, we called and asked. Well, I didn’t call from the personnel department. They told me he was in his homeland. “

Oleg Galegov is ethnic Georgian. As an adult, he came to Belarus, met the Belarusian Anna, who quickly became his wife.

Belarusian air traffic controller O. Galegov told the pilot of the Ryanair liner flying from Athens to Vilnius that there was a bomb on the plane and recommended that he direct the plane to Minsk, according to a transcript released by the country’s transport ministry. .

The crash landing of a European airliner flying from Athens to Vilnius caused outrage around the world. European Union airlines have suspended flights to Belarus and the bloc’s leaders agreed to sanctions against Minsk.

The Aviation Department of the Belarusian Ministry of Transport has released a transcript of a conversation between a pilot at Minsk airport and a line pilot during the incident.

“We have information from special services that there is a bomb on your plane and that it may be detonated over Vilnius,” said O. Galegov, an air traffic controller in Minsk.

He then recommended that the plane land. The pilot began to wonder where the threat came from and Minsk replied that the airport security service had received it by email. Belarus has repeatedly advised Ryanair to land in Minsk, saying: “This is our recommendation.”

But on Monday, Belarusian officials said the decision to land in Minsk had been made independently by the pilot and that he still had a chance to fly to Poland or Ukraine.

Belarusian officials also said the threat was emailed to the Minsk airport by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

This was reiterated in the statement. The Transport Ministry also indicated that representatives of international agencies were invited to further clarify the circumstances of the incident.

The invited organizations are the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and the EU and US aviation administrations.

Opposition activist Raman Pratasevic was at Ryanair landing; was arrested after landing in Minsk.

Pratasevičius, 26, fled Belarus to the EU in 2019 and was there to help manage the Nexta channels of the Telegram correspondence platform, which played a major role in mobilizing unprecedented protests in Belarus.

Belarusian state television has published several videos in which Pratasevic says he is cooperating with law enforcement officials and giving “confessions” about accusations of organizing protests.

But his allies say the videos were shot under pressure.

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