A holiday jet travelling from the UK to Spain’s Canary Islands diverted to Shannon Airport this morning after a passenger was reported to have fallen ill.
EasyJet flight EZY-2009 had departed Manchester Airport in England shortly after 7.30am bound for Tenerife South airport. The flight was about an hour into its journey and around 300 kilometres south of Ireland, when the crew turned around.
The flight crew made radio contact with air traffic controllers in Ireland and reported they had a passenger on board who required urgent medical attention. The crew requested clearance to turn around and divert to Shannon Airport.
Authorities and ground handling services at Shannon were notified of the unscheduled arrival while the National Ambulance Service was contacted and requested to dispatch resources to the airport.
The flight crew had also confirmed they would be making an overweight landing so, in accordance with standard procedures, Shannon Airport’s Fire and Rescue Service was alerted and requested to mobilise appliances to holding points adjacent to the runway as a precaution.
The Airbus A320 jet landed safely at 9.17am and pursued along the runway by rescue vehicles which also accompanied the aircraft to the termnial where airport staff and ambulance paramedics were standing by.
The passenger was assessed at the airport before being transported to University Hospital Limerick for treatment.
Later, when the flight was preparing to continue its journey to Tenerife, the crew reported an issue which they were working to resolve. When they were initially unable to, the aircraft returned to the terminal where further efforts to remedy the problem took place. Once the technical issue was sorted, the flight continued its journey shortly after 1.00pm.
An EasyJet spokesperson confirmed: “Due to a passenger onboard requiring urgent medical assistance, flight EZY2009 from Manchester to Tenerife this morning was required to divert to Shannon Airport, where they were met by emergency services and transferred to hospital.
The aircraft returned to stand before take-off at Shannon Airport for additional checks due to a minor technical issue and once resolved the flight continued to Tenerife shortly afterwards.”
“The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority and we are sorry for any inconvenience caused by the delay,” the spokesperson added.