Why the Skyjacking Succeeded
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2021
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On Sunday, authorities in Belarus took a prominent opposition journalist into custody by flagging down a commercial flight with a fighter jet and a false bomb threat. Since then, the small country has garnered international condemnation - though it’s evoked little contrition from President Alexander Lukashenko. What does this hijacking signal about the steadfastness of authoritarianism in Belarus and around the world?
Guest: Julia Ioffe, correspondent for GQ
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, everyone. There's a little spicy language ahead. Get your earmuffs ready. |
| 0:10.6 | Just repeating the facts of exactly what happened to Ryan Air Flight 4978 this weekend. It feels like you're tapping out the first few lines of a pulpy spy novel. |
| 0:22.6 | The plane was supposed to travel nonstop from Greece to Lithuania. |
| 0:27.5 | It was going to do that by cutting through Belarus' airspace. |
| 0:31.7 | But when it did that, the pilots got a message from air traffic control. |
| 0:36.5 | A code read. They were told there was a bomb on board. |
| 0:40.4 | Belarusian authorities sent a fighter jet to escort the plane to Minsk, even though they were |
| 0:45.1 | closer to Lithuania at that point. After they landed, instead of pulling explosives off the aircraft, |
| 0:53.1 | authorities pulled off people, specifically a Bella Russian dissident that President |
| 0:57.8 | Alexander Lukashenko had been trying to capture for years. |
| 1:02.7 | His 23-year-old girlfriend got detained too. |
| 1:05.8 | In other words, this was a state-sponsored skyjacking. |
| 1:12.5 | I mean, it's insane. |
| 1:14.8 | This was just, I mean, something out of a movie. |
| 1:19.7 | Julia Yoffie was watching all this play out from New York. |
| 1:23.2 | She covers the region for GQ Magazine. |
| 1:25.5 | Yeah. |
| 1:26.6 | When I saw it on Sunday, I was like, oh, that kid. |
| 1:29.6 | I saw it on Twitter first. |
| 1:30.7 | I was like, I don't know. |
| 1:33.9 | Like, I'm going to wait on this new story to see, you know, see if it's actually true. |
| 1:39.6 | I mean, it's insane. |
... |
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