A Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius that made an emergency landing in Minsk following a bomb scare on Sunday has left Belarus for Lithuania.
The incident has triggered a wave of criticism from European leaders, who accused the Belarusian authorities of meddling with the European Union's civil aviation. NATO said diverting the flight was "serious and dangerous," while the European Union stated that "such an act cannot be left unanswered.”
After the plane with more than 120 people onboard touched down in Belarus, the passengers were taken to the transit zone in Minsk Airport and their luggage was searched for possible explosives. However, nothing suspicious was found.
Later, the Belarusian Interior Ministry said that Roman Protosevich, the founder of Telegram's "Nexta" channel – who was among the passengers – had been detained.
In 2013, the plane of Bolivia's then-president Evo Morales was directed by Austria to make an emergency landing at the behest of the United States, during the hunt for National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. The former NSA contractor was never on board, though.
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