Passengers aboard a Jet2 flight bound for a popular holiday destination found themselves diverted 1,000km away following a mid-air medical emergency. Flight LS167, originally departing from Glasgow Airport en route to Arrecife Airport in Lanzarote, took off around 3:30 pm on Thursday. The Boeing 737-800 aircraft was cruising at 37,000ft off the coast of Portugal when the pilots decided to divert the plane due to a medical issue, necessitating a rapid descent to Faro Airport on Portugal’s Algarve coast.
An emergency situation was declared onboard, prompting the issuance of a squawk code 7700 to alert air traffic control and prioritize the aircraft for landing, with emergency services prepared on the ground. This code indicates a general emergency without specifying the exact nature of the problem, excluding hijacking or radio failure scenarios.
Reports indicate that the emergency stemmed from a medical incident, with emergency response teams ready to meet the plane upon landing in Faro. Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24 depicts the plane’s path over the Atlantic Ocean before the diversion towards Faro, where it landed around 6:20 pm after a northward turn.
After a brief stopover in Faro, the flight resumed its journey and arrived in Lanzarote at 9:35 pm. The Mirror has reached out to Jet2 for further information.
This incident comes in the wake of another emergency involving an easyJet flight en route to Manchester Airport from Amsterdam. Passengers aboard the Airbus A320-200 flight U22164 experienced a mid-air alert as the plane circled in a holding pattern before safely landing in Manchester following a deviation from its normal approach trajectory. The emergency was declared approximately one hour into the flight, resulting in a delayed arrival time at 3:05 pm instead of the scheduled 2:20 pm.
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