The return was successful, but completely overshadowed by a huge scandal that erupted after political analyst and commentator Marius Laurinavičius was removed from the plane just before take-off to Vilnius.
Ninety-seven Lithuanians returned to Vilnius, while five US citizens and one Bulgarian citizen were allowed to board the plane at the last minute.
Laurinavičius remained in Jordan. He was already on the plane when he was asked to leave.
Susiję straipsniai
This news quickly turned into a massive scandal in Lithuania – Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys promised 'not to abandon either his citizen or this story.'
“Marius will return home, and we will put an end to Russian business culture” once and for all,' Budrys declared.
Conservative leader Laurynas Kasčiūnas, former Constitutional Court judge Dainius Žalimas and blogger Skirmantas Malinauskas also spoke sharply about the situation. All of them sharply criticised businessman Gediminas Žiemelis, whose company Chapman Freeborn, part of the Avia Solutions Group, provided the plane for the evacuation.
The compatriots who returned after midnight were photographed by Vygintas Skaraitis, a photographer for the Lrytas portal.
The company provided an explanation
On Wednesday evening, as the plane was already approaching Lithuania, Žiemelis himself spoke about the situation.
He presented a rather scandalous version of events, utterly contrary to what the Head of the company organising the flight had said earlier.
“Hello, everyone. I am unexpectedly being contacted by various Lithuanian journalists regarding the incident that is currently being widely discussed in the Lithuanian media. I am with Air Show and did not even know what exactly happened during the organisation of this flight. I asked for information, 'wrote Žiemelis.' The initial conclusion is that there was a possible threat by a passenger to blow up the plane (whether it was Žiemelis or someone else is irrelevant). It is a serious violation of aviation safety rules. It does not matter whether the person did it as a joke, under the influence of alcohol or for other unjustifiable reasons. In the US, for example, such a person would be detained. But it is not for me to moralise. Let the authorities investigate”.
Earlier, Vilma Vaitiekūnaitė, Head of Skylence, the company organising the evacuation flight, said that Laurinavičius was removed from the flight due to the situation with the data.
“What I know at this point is that the ground handling company had questions about the passenger data received from the operator. However, we did not have time to clarify this on the spot because air traffic in the region is hefty, and the airspace is very congested. It was important not to take any risks and to fly people out before sunset because after that, due to night-time attacks, flights are not allowed at all,” V. Vaitiekūnaitė explained to ELTA on Wednesday evening.
When asked by a journalist whether the situation could be related to the fact that Laurinavičius is a fierce critic of Žiemelis, Vaitiekūnaitė declined to comment.
What did the Lithuanians travelling on the plane see?
At 1 a.m., the Lithuanians evacuated from Israel walked through the gates of Vilnius Airport, where they were met not only by their relatives but also by a group of journalists.
Despite their exhaustion, the Lithuanians said they were very grateful, although opinions differed on how well the state had organised the evacuation.
Some had considerable criticism of the repeated flight delays and lack of communication. In contrast, others said they had nothing bad to say, as they had been well looked after and all the staff they encountered had been extremely patient and pleasant.
At the same time, the Lithuanians informed us about what happened on the plane from which Laurinavičius was asked to disembark.
Journalist Ana said that the passengers were so tired that there was virtually no conversation on the plane.
“We went through one check, where you just hand over your passport and walk through, then we checked our hand luggage and had to show our passports again before boarding the flight, then they checked them again and only then did they let us through.
We had already taken our seats; everyone was exhausted, so everyone was sitting quietly, waiting for us to take off finally, and it seemed that no one wanted to say a word. And suddenly, we heard Marius Laurinavičius's name over the loudspeaker on the plane. I saw him being asked to come to the cockpit. He stood up and left and came back a minute later,” she said.
According to her, it was clear from Laurinavičius's face as he returned that he was not smiling out of happiness.
“To tell the truth, we had been joking beforehand, wondering whether Laurinavičius, who had criticised the Head of this company on more than one occasion, would have any problems boarding (the plane – author's note). He had no problems boarding, but unfortunately, he had to get off that plane.
And when we landed and turned on our phones and saw a comment about some possible explosive device, my colleagues and I couldn't believe it. We started laughing hysterically because I hadn't heard anything and couldn't imagine how it could have happened,” said Ana.
In her opinion, the crew could provide more information about the incident, but she stated that she did not observe any conflict.
Vladimir Simonko, the Head of LGL, who was attending a march in Israel, also said that no one understood what had happened.
“His surname was announced, he didn't understand what had happened. I can honestly say that we initially thought it was a misunderstanding, perhaps regarding luggage. We saw him being led away and standing by the plane. I thought he would come back right away,” said Simonko.
Another journalist who was flying with them, Ignas, also stated that Laurinavičius did not make any jokes about explosives.
“We were together at the airport; all the passengers were nearby. We would never have thought that something like that could be done,” Ignas assured.
“What Mr Gediminas Žiemelis is saying is not true,” he emphasised.
Laurinavičius denied the version
Speaking about Vaitiekūnaitė's version, Laurinavičius emphasised that the claims that he was removed from the plane due to discrepancies in his documents were lies.
“This is a complete lie. If there had been discrepancies in my documents, I would have been stopped at the border checkpoint,” Laurinavičius explained to LRT television on Wednesday evening. “Everything was fine everywhere, crossing all borders. To suggest that something is wrong with the documents is simply ridiculous. This is an attempt to justify the unjustifiable because Žiemelis, in revenge against me, has undermined the Lithuanian government.”
The Lithuanian authorities began the evacuation on Tuesday morning. Initially, people were transported by bus to Jordan, where they were forced to wait for their flight, which kept being delayed. They were initially supposed to return to Lithuania on Tuesday, but the plane did not take off until Wednesday evening.
The Lrytas portal reminds us that the evacuation was necessary after Israel launched military operations against Iran.
At that time, Israeli airspace was closed. It remains closed now, with a few exceptions.