Belarusian plane turns back after warning about French airspace

A Belarusian passenger plane flying from Minsk to Barcelona turned back on Wednesday, data from website Flightradar24 showed, after Poland said it may not be able to enter French airspace. EU leaders have directed officials to draw up new sanctions against Belarus and work out a way to ban Belarusian airlines from the bloc’s skies after a Ryanair flight carrying a dissident journalist was forced to land in Minsk. Belarusian state carrier Belavia flight 2869 from Minsk had been scheduled to land in Barcelona on Wednesday afternoon. “This pilot received information from us that the French airspace was blocked ... and he may have a problem with entering,” Polish Air Navigation Services Agency spokesman Pawel Lukasiewicz said by telephone. Belarus’ foreign ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz called the move “air piracy”, while Belavia said a ban on flights from Minsk to Paris, received earlier from the French aviation authorities, initially did not include a ban on passage through French airspace. “A second attempt to coordinate the route with Marseille’s Air Traffic Control was also unsuccessful, including flights on routes passing over neutral waters, which is contrary to the norms of the Chicago Convention and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,” it said. French Junior Minister for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari said on Monday that France had suspended the authorisation for Belavia flights to cross its territory.<br/>