Following the widely publicized incident on an evacuation flight from Israel, when political commentator Marius Laurinavičius was deboarded from the plane in Jordan, Gediminas Žiemelis's comment also became public. The business group he controls "Avia Solutions Group", whose company Chapman Freeborn carried out the evacuation of Lithuanians, found itself at the center of this story.
According to Žiemelis, he only learned about the incident after receiving questions from journalists.
"Unexpectedly, various Lithuanian journalists are writing to me about an event that is currently being widely discussed in the country's media. I am at an air show and I didn't even know what happened during the organization of this particular flight. I asked for information," the businessman wrote on his social networks.
According to him, initial information suggests a serious violation of aviation security regulations.
"A potential threat by a passenger to blow up an airplane – whether it's Žiemelis's or someone else's – is a serious violation of aviation security rules. It doesn't matter whether the person did it as a joke, after drinking too much alcohol, or for some other unjustifiable reason," Žiemelis says.
The businessman emphasizes that such situations should not be viewed negatively: "For example, JAV "Such a person would be detained. But it's not for me to moralize - let the services investigate this."
Kicked out for revenge?
The incident occurred on Wednesday evening when the evacuated Lithuanians were being put on a plane at Aqaba Airport in Jordan. According to the portal Delphi, journalist Marius Laurinavičius was asked off the plane before it even took off. Journalist Ana Daukševič, who was traveling with him, indicated that M. Laurinavičius managed to tell colleagues that this was "revenge for criticism" of the company controlled by Žiemelis.
The evacuation of Lithuanians from Israel was organized at the initiative of Lithuanian institutions - they were transported by buses across the Jordanian border on Tuesday morning. The flight to Vilnius was organized by Chapman Freeborn, part of Avia Solutions Group.
The situation did not go unnoticed by state institutions.
"We will not leave our citizen or this history like this. Marius will return home, and we will finally eliminate the Russian business "culture", - stated Minister of Foreign Affairs Kęstutis Budrys.
As Žiemelis reminds us, "threats on an airplane – regardless of the context – should be viewed strictly," and decisions in this situation should be made by the relevant services.
