The mysterious case of Ryanair flight 4978

Simon Calder’s Travel Week [View in browser]( [The Independent]( [Travel] Simon Calder’s Travel Week [Simon Calder]( Written by Simon Calder | January 21, 2022 Of the many virtues of travelling life in the 21st-century, the greatest is aviation safety. UK airlines have had an astonishing fatal accident-free record for over three decades. The last tragedy was at [Kegworth]( 33 years ago this month: in January 1989 a British Midland Boeing 737 crashed beside the M1 in Leicestershire; 47 passengers lost their lives. Aviation safety is built on learning lessons from tragedies – and from non-fatal events that could have proved calamitous. But [the forced diversion of a Ryanair plane to Minsk last May]( was unprecedented. The Boeing 737 was on a routine flight from Athens to Vilnius. On board, as a regular paying passenger, was a Belarusian dissident, Roman Protasevich. Within seconds of crossing into Belarus airspace, the pilots of FR4978 were warned a credible bomb threat had been received. Air-traffic control insisted they should land in Minsk, even though their intended destination of the Lithuanian capital was much closer. Ready to go: Ryanair Boeing 737 at Athens airport, where flight 4978 began In the official report into the incident (which I have studied so you don’t have to), the depth of safety planning and professionalism of the crew shines through. The pilots asked all the right questions about the nature of the threat. Terrorists, they were told, had emailed Minsk airport; investigators subsequently found that a threatening email was sent almost half-an-hour after air-traffic control warned of a bomb on board. As the plane descended swiftly to 10,000 feet – where cabin pressure could be equalised to minimise the damage an explosion could cause – the captain announced the diversion. A chilling line of the report reads: “One of the passengers stood up and shouted to one of the cabin crew that he could not land in Minsk as ‘I’m wanted there, they’ll kill me’.” After touchdown Mr Protasevich was arrested and the alleged explosive device was swiftly forgotten. When a threat is present, international air rules call for an immediate evacuation of passengers. But disembarkation as organised by Belarusian officials took a leisurely 50 minutes. Unintended consequence: the flight path of the Ryanair plane Aviation safety experts seek to minimise risk by war-gaming all manner of scenarios. But a “non-bomb plot” aimed at imprisoning a political opponent of a dictator was presumably too far-fetched to contemplate. I imagine standard operating procedures now include instructions on how to proceed if air-traffic controllers relay what sounds like fake news along with safety-critical information. Meanwhile [Ryanair remains the safest airline in the world]( in terms of passengers flown without a fatal accident; by the same metric, easyJet is in second place. If you have time, [read the report]( and be reassured by the remarkable depth of safety measures that are in place. Otherwise, take my word that your life is in safe hands. Destination of the week: Museum of the Future, Dubai Shape of the future: Dubai's newest creation The essence of museums is to look back – but Dubai’s newest cultural collection focuses half-a-century ahead. The Museum of the Future is a spectacular creation whose claim is that “history is made rather than displayed, where instead of absorbing the past you help the future to emerge”. While its own immediate future remains uncertain (the museum was due to open last year), bear it in mind if you plan a trip to, or stopover in, the UAE. Don’t miss my daily travel podcast [Green List Travel]( For all the latest travel tips, advice and news analysis, listen to ‘Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast’ – available from Monday to Friday for free on [Spotify](, [Apple Podcasts](, [Pocket Casts]( or [Acast](. Deals of the week: Back on the rails - [Cutbacks on Avanti West Coast services]( between London, the West Midlands and northwest England make the slower, cheaper rival trains of London Northwestern more attractive. Between Crewe and the capital, a super off-peak return costs £34.60 return; one-way advance tickets are widely available for £12.50. Similar attractive fares are available from Birmingham and Coventry to London. - Eurostar is stepping up its departures between London and Paris from two a day to three from Monday 24 January. The extra daily departure, at 12.31pm from St Pancras, is generally priced at £86 one-way. Travel voucher of the week [Voucher]( [Get 10% Off With Our Viator Promo Code]( Travel question of the week: Could I be randomly quarantined in Canada? Q Apparently Canada has random testing on arrival which then requires isolation for three days. Do you know the risk of being randomly selected? It would make a ski holiday impossible. A As with other countries, Canada reserves the right to test arriving passengers randomly selected at airports or at land border crossings. After my recent flight from London to Toronto, I was unaware of anyone being selected, but some reports suggest it is fairly common. The authorities insist: “You must quarantine in a suitable place while you await the arrival test result”. While this could take a couple of days, I gather the outcome is usually a same-day event. If positive, you must self-isolate for 10 days, which will scupper most holidays. 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