THREATENING AVIATION SAFETY: CASE OF STUDY FROM THE RYANAIR FLIGHT 4978 INCIDENT

Résumé

A recent diversion of the Irish Carrier Ryanair (flying from Athens to Vilnius) to Minsk on the false pretext of a bomb threat and the arrest of a dissident journalist Roman Protasevich and his Russian girlfriend, Sofia Sapega who were onboard has created a spur among the international community for multitude of reasons. Firstly, even though incidents of interception have occurred in the past, the current one is unprecedented, and secondly, apart from endangering aviation safety, the incident sheds light on the lack of basic human rights in Belarus and the extent to which the current regime in Belarus condemns independent media.
Additionally, the incident escalates as one of the biggest spurts in East-West tensions in the recent years with sanctions by the US and EU over Belarus on one hand and Russia’s relentless support to the regime on the other. Despite avoidance of a country’s airspace due to conflicts or political considerations is not novel, the recent incident has brought to light the weaknesses ofinternational aviation law in general as well as the insufficiency of the regulatory mechanism pertaining to aviation safety.
Undertaking a doctrinal approach to bring to light the legal issues surrounding the diversion of the aircraft, this paper vide a legal analysis of statutory framework regulating airspace, identify violations that may have occurred and attempt to substantially affix responsibilities for such violations. In such attempt at affixation, the paper brings to light gaps in the statutory framework regulating aerial activities & air space, and highlight what would entail thereafter through an impact based analysis. In light of the analysis, the paper finally presents a specific road ahead, vide suggestions to bring about changes in the Montreal and Chicago Conventions, and better executive action of the International Civil Aviation Organization (hereinafter “ICAO”) so as to bring about effective enforcement of the aforementioned primary laws and strengthening the process of such execution.