EditorA Turkey-bound Jet2 flight from England landed in Greece on emergency after the pilot reportedly fainted and setting passengers on panic mode.
An alarm raised by flight attendants in a Jet2 plane on Tuesday forced the plane to take to emergency landing, according to reports. The Turkey-bound flight from England landed in Greece.
Birmingham Live quoted a passenger as saying that the flight set off from Birmingham to Antalya but had to make an emergency landing as a ”precautionary measure” after it became clear that the pilot was unwell.
The jet was said to be on 3,000 feet when the pilot reportedly fainted, reports quoting flight attendants said.
According to Birmingham Live ,a fuming passenger claimed that the ordeal had delayed their trip by at least eight hours. ”They said their family of four was given a 15 Euro voucher each which covered a basic meal.”
A spokesperson of JET2, a holiday firm, was also quoted as saying that the teams worked extremely hard to look after everyone and apologised for the delay.
The passenger who volunteered to speak on the matter was reported to have said the incident began when the plane hit some turbulence. ”While we were all seated, we noticed something was going on at the front of the plane. we thought someone had hurt themselves in the toilet while experiencing turbulence.
We ere told we were landing in Greece due to a medical emergency on board. We weren’t told what part.”
a delayed passenger, however, said the staff did their best to make the passengers comfortable and keep them ‘updated in the airport – but not before they were stuck on the runway for over an hour waiting for an ambulance to arrive.’ Medical emergencies are not covered in Jet2’s compensation policy.
The traveler added: ”People were worried as we’d just been through turbulence and we didn’t know what was happening. ”Then got frustrated as once we were off the plane no one was updating us. The crew was amazing but once in the airport, it was chaos.”
”Flight LS1239 from Birmingham to Antalya diverted to Thessaloniki Airport as a precautionary measure on Tuesday (August 23) due to one of the pilots feeling unwell. A replacement crew were flown to Thessaloniki so that we could get customers on their way to Antalya that same evening, a spokesman said.
Jet2 incident would be the second time such an air scare would happen in the global airspace in just one week. Recall that Prime Business Africa had reported that the Ethiopian Airlines had also suspended two of its pilots for overshooting the airport after they fell asleep.
READ ALSO: Ethiopian Airlines Suspends 2 Sleeping Pilots
Analysts have argued that stress and fatigue could be in the mix as they suspect that the crew may have been overworked. Ethiopia has the best in aviation management in Africa,” Ifeanyi Ibe a journalist and security expertsaid while reacting to the suspension of the two pilots.
”Aviation is the country’s biggest revenue earner and the devil wanted to mess it up. But it is also important to look at the flying schedule of the pilots, hoping they were not overstretched. Flying schedule can be tight and has impact on the sleep and general health of pilots.
”The airline should beam its searchlight on the fairness of the schedule before concluding on the punishment of the pilots. It’s reasonable to study the total hours of flying by the pilots within the week and determine the implication of their overall performance vis-a-vis their health.” Mr Ibe, a former Chief Security Officer at The Guardian, Nigeria, said.
It’s actually stress.