"authorities cleared the aircraft to depart together with passengers" Good to know that if Ryanair says "passengers" they mean "some of the passengers". Edit:

"authorities cleared the aircraft to depart together with passengers" Good to know that if Ryanair says "passengers" they mean "some of the passengers". Edit: Also, as Flightradar24 states, Minsk was not the nearest airport at the time the plane was diverted, and it likely was never the fastest-to-reach airport while the plane was over Belarus, because the pilots would be prepared for a landing in Vilnius. The plane crossed the border into Belarus at ~9:30 around (51.929851, 25.369313), 280 km from Minsk airport, 300 km from Vilnius airport, with the Vilnius runway at a favorable angle and the Minsk runways perpendicular to the shortest path from their position to Minsk. So Ryanair's statement that it was the nearest airport sounds like bullshit too. At the time the plane made the turn (starting at ~9:45), it was about 2 minutes away from leaving Belarus airspace.