"In the course of the investigation … it was established that there was no threat of an aircraft explosion. A pilot received information about such a threat even before an email was sent about the alleged placement of explosives on the plane," the office said in a statement, adding that the whole situation was a pretext to "force the pilot to land in Minsk".
On 23 May, Belarus diverted a Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius to Minsk over a bomb threat that turned out to be false. Two passengers aboard the aircraft, Roman Protasevich, co-founder of the Nexta Telegram channel (labelled as extremist in Belarus), and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, who is suspected of publishing the private data of Belarusian security services officers, were detained during the stopover at the airport.