A Jet2 flight from Glasgow Airport to Lanzarote had to be diverted to Faro in Portugal more than midway through the journey after a mid-air emergency
Passengers on a Jet2 flight heading to a holiday hotspot ended up 1,000km away after a mid-air emergency.
Flight LS167 departed Glasgow Airport on its way to Arrecife Airport, Lanzarote at around 3.30pm on Thursday and was well into the journey when pilots on the Boeing 737-800 made the decision to divert.
The plane was cruising at 37,000ft off the coast of Portugal, two and half hours into the flight when the crew declared an emergency due to a medical issue. A rapid descent was made to Faro Airport on Portugal’s Algarve coast.
A squawk code of 7700 is issued to warn air traffic control of an emergency on board. This gives priority to the aircraft to come into land and emergency services would be waiting for it on the ground.
It is a general emergency code and so doesn’t specify what the problem is on board. It is a “catch-all” for any emergency situation that isn’t a hijacking (7500) or radio failure (7600).
In this case it is understood the emergency was due to a medical incident. Emergency crews were on standby to meet the plane when it arrived in Faro, reports AirLive.
Data from flight tracking website FlightRadar24 shows the plane travelling south over the Atlantic Ocean along the western coast of Portugal at around 37,000ft, before making a sharp left turn and descending. After declaring the emergency, the flight turned north before landing in Faro at around 6.20pm.
Following a stopover of around two hours in Faro, the flight departed Portugal at around 8pm and arrived in Lanzarote at 9.35pm.
The Mirror has contacted Jet2 for comment.
This comes after an easyJet flight declared an emergency as it approached Manchester Airport this week.
Passengers were making the short trip from Amsterdam on Wednesday when flight crew aboard the Airbus A320-200 sent out a mid-air alert and the plane began circling in a holding pattern.
The pilot of easyJet flight U22164 from Schiphol Airport deviated from a normal trajectory into Manchester Airport and circled to the north of the city, according to flight trackers.
It was around one hour after the plane had taken off that flight crew declared the emergency as it was preparing to make the descent into Manchester.
Following the emergency alert, the plane was routed directly onto the approach path and safely touched down on Runway 05R at Manchester Airport without further incident. After circling the airport it touched down at 3:05 pm, 45 minutes later than the scheduled arrival time of 2:20 pm.