An Anadolujet Boeing 737-800 on behalf of THY Turkish Airlines, registration TC-JGA performing flight TK-7698 from Ankara (Turkey) to Moscow Vnukovo (Russia) with 145 people on board, was enroute at FL370 about 80nm northwest of Minsk (Belarus) in Lithuanian Airspace when the crew initiated an emergency descent, the passenger oxygen masks were deployed, and decided to divert to Minsk. The aircraft landed safely on Minsk's runway 13L about 30 minutes after leaving FL370.
Passengers complained about smelling a burning odour on board and believed there was a fire on board (editorial note: the burning smell is created by the oxygen generators to produce the oxygen for the masks) and reported they were left abandoned at Minsk Airport and had to get their onward travel organised themselves.
The occurrence aircraft remained on the ground in Minsk for about 21 hours, then positioned to Vilnius (Lithuania).