Medical emergency forces Mallorca bound flight to make early landing

A Jet2 flight was forced to make an emergency landing at Manchester Airport en route to Palma De Mallorca.

Passengers had boarded their flight at Edinburgh excited and eagerly awaiting to take off and begin their holidays or return back home to Mallorca on Wednesday morning, however before they even got out of UK airspace, they were left disappointed.

Jet2 flight LS717 took off from Edinburgh on time as it made headways toward Palma De Mallorca Airport but just as it got over Manchester the crew and pilots on board felt it was necessary to let ground control there was an emergency.

It has been reported that somebody onboard the flight had been taken unwell and needed to get off the aircraft and required medical assistance quicker than it would take to get to their original destination.

Why was a Mallorca-bound flight forced to make an emergency landing?

As the plane was flying over Manchester it sent out squawk code 7700 letting people know on the ground that they had encountered an emergency and were requesting the ability to make an immediate landing at a nearby airport and in this case, it was Manchester Airport.

From an image shown on AirNav RadarBox, it’s clear that the Jet2 flight was going past Manchester and Sheffield before it initiated a U-turn and managed to loop back around before initiating its descent.

Jet2 came out and made a statement on the incident and confirmed that it was indeed a passenger, not a member of the crew, who said they required medical assistance, so the pilot had no choice but to make the unplanned landing.

The statement read: “Flight LS717 from Edinburgh to Palma diverted to Manchester Airport on Wednesday, October 11 due to a customer requiring medical attention.”

Jet2 flight was able to continue its original journey

The situation is now under control and the passenger is receiving the required medical assistance to make them feel better, while flight LS717 destined for Palma De Mallorca has since completed its original journey.

It is still very unclear as to how serious the medical emergency was with nobody yet making a comment on the passenger’s behalf or from the airline but with the pilot able to make a swift landing, it’s hoped that the person in question is going to be back in good health.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Jet2 have encountered issues on their aircraft because just the other day a 61-year-old passenger was pronounced dead having arrived at London Heathrow and nobody appeared to notice for a prolonged period of time.

What is going on further south at Luton Airport where all flights have been suspended may well have seen the pilot decide to make such a premature landing at Manchester, knowing there would have been one fewer airport to land at had he kept going.