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THE TRANSPORT MINISTER is to call on the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to carry out an independent investigation into the forced diversion of a Ryanair flight to Belarus.
Eamon Ryan told the International Transport Forum (ITF) that a thorough investigation into the incident is needed.
Ryan also called for the immediate release of Roman Protasevich and his Russian girlfriend Sofia Sapega.
Protasevich was on board a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius on Sunday when it was forced to change course to head for the Belarus capital after a reported bomb scare, escorted by a MiG fighter jet.
He was arrested and, in a video released by Belarusian authorities on Monday evening, appeared to admit he was involved in organising mass protests in Minsk last year.
Ryan said that Ireland and European leaders have condemned the “coercive forced landing” of the plane.
He added that the “unacceptable actions” by authorities in Belarus endangered the lives of the passengers and crew onboard.
“We call for an transparent and independent investigation by the International Civil Aviation Organisation into the incident,” Ryan told the ITF annual conference of transport ministers.
I think we need a full probe, a thorough investigation.
“What we will be looking for is an investigation under Article 55E of the Convention of the Council (ICAO).
“My understanding is that this will be the first such investigation. We would expect it to be at the end of June. I think it’s vital that it’s thorough, that it’s independent and comprehensive.
“For everyone’s interest we need to know what happened, which is a very serious incident.”
Article 55E gives the council the power to investigated, at the request of any contracting State, “any situation which may appear to present avoidable obstacles to the development of international air navigation; and, after such investigation, issue such reports as may appear to it desirable”.
On Monday evening, the EU and the UK announced it would issue new sanctions against Belarus in light of the arrest.
Protasevich’s parents today pleaded for help in securing the release of their son.
“I want you to relay our appeal everywhere, throughout the world, to government representatives, to EU countries, to EU leaders, to US leaders: I am appealing, I am begging, help me free my son,” his mother Natalia told journalists in Warsaw.
His father, Dmitry said Protasevich is “a tough man” and “a hero”.
“Throughout his life he fought for the truth and passed it on to people, which is why Lukashenko committed this despicable act,” he said.
The couple and their lawyer confirmed that they have not had any communication with their son since his arrest.
The G7 global powers also demanded that Minsk release Protasevich and the EU’s foreign policy chief threatened hard-hitting economic sanctions.
Alexander Lukashenko has been president of Belarus since the post was established in 1994 and won re-election for a sixth time in 2020 with 80% of the vote, in a ballot deemed “neither free nor fair” by the European Union.
Since winning the disputed election last August, Lukashenko has cracked down on dissenting voices, with many opposition figures arrested and others forced into exile.
Additional reporting by AFP.
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iPad is without doubt one of the best devices I have ever owned, I love it.
You love it? Wow.
I would guess most people had held out for the last 2-3 months on buying an iPad as the new models were being announced last week.
iPad sales had seen a massive drop in their last earnings report too. It will be even bigger this time next year, people don’t own large-screened phones and use tablets too, it’s pointless. I could see the point of owning both when the iPhone screens were tiny, not now though.
I would imagine people change phones more often than they change a tablet, so the top-end of the tablet market may be suffering some saturation at the moment before it settles into a normal renewal cycle.
I’m genuinely surprised how little iTunes contributes to their income.
Android is still too buggy , there are too many cheap android devices that can’t perform basic tasks.
Anyone can operate an iPad whether they are 3 or 83 , the older generation have embraced apple tech much easier than android!
Get yourself a Samsung. So much better. Ive used ipads before the Samsung. So slow. Im not surprised sales are falling.
I would totally agree.
The fact that you cannot add SD card memory was my turning point.
The 10.1″ Galaxy NOTE 2014 would kick any IPad in performance.
I prefer using the Samsung. Haven’t used the ipad since.
Tablets are used more for watching TV on. Ipads are far too restrictive in what you can and can’t watch.
An android with mobdro and you’re good to go.
Writing this on an iPad that’s 3 1/2 yrs old although it can’t be updated anymore it’s still one of The best bits of Tech I’ve ever owned
I wish they’d change the iTunes interface, it’s such a pain in the hole.
Is the large version of iphone 6 being used as an alternative to the ipad mini?
Yes, I would imagine you are correct. Certainly wouldn’t be a massive difference now between the phones and the iPad mini.
Great phone by the way, the Samsung killer I would say.
Is Apple the cult Tom cruise and John travolta are involved in. (Wrote on my iPhone)
Some people might be holding out for the new iPads, but Apple has been losing ground to Android-based tablets for the past two years: http://blog.globalwebindex.net/Android-dominates-tablet
I’d say they’re fine losing market share to the €100 Android tablets that you see knocking about, the people buying those were unlikely to get an iPad. I’d like to see a breakdown of the flagship tablet market.
Wasn’t Apple heavily dependant on iPod sales at one stage too…
Love Apple computers, don’t like their phones!
That’s odd in the last apple story there was a guy who’s friend worked in a mobile phone shop and apparently they couldn’t sell any iPhones at all.
I was sure that was a reliable source for sales figures.
Being a user of both, I can definitely say that Apple is to restrictive and therefore useless in a lot of ways. Once they have you, they want to enslave you into buying all their products. To many frustrations. Would definitely not recommended Apple. Don’t become an Apple zombie!
Have both myself also , but do not find any real restrictions on IOS. Depends how you use them I suppose. Both are great, but if generally find Apple a better interface and build quality.
I haven’t come across an interesting new app for ages. It’s good to see the hardware improving but the software people seem to have hit a brick wall. It seems to me that the industry needs more personal information from us to develop but we are getting more careful and taking the privacy option where possible. The U2 album fiasco showed that what we want is not what they want to give us. We want to draw back from the always on connected world and to pick and choose how we interact.
Htc have a new range of tablets Comming out on November 3rd and if they are anything like the HTC One M8 phone They will storm the tablet Charts.Sd card will mean a lot more storage freed up on the tablet itself.
HTC One M7 & M8 are great phones but unfortunately they do not sell very well HTC made a big loss on the M7, have improved with the M8, but still nowhere near the likes of Samsung.
Don’t really like Apple myself(except I-tunes, where theres no choice) think Sony is much better all round.
I think the fizz has left Apple recently, it’s not big news anymore.
Always used iPhones but today i upgraded to an S5. Vodafone are out of stock with no date for new iPhone 6 handsets and it would have cost me 250 blips. S5 is free with the same if not better specs. Total no brainer
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