Chaos as Canary Islands flight diverted due to ’emergency’ on board | World | News

A PACKAGED holiday jet en route from London Stansted to the Canary Islands has been diverted to Portugal due to a red alert. Jet 2 Boeing 737 was bound for Fuerteventura but instead landed at Faro Airport in the Algarve.

A local source said the plane suffered a possible engine failure, but this has not yet been confirmed by authorities or Jet2. The flight is EXS83LV.

It was scheduled to land in Fuerteventura at 12.15pm local time after leaving London Stansted just before 8am.

Emergency services, including paramedics and firefighters, are understood to be on standby at Faro Airport as part of the protocol’s red alert procedure.

Civil Protection said 35 vehicles and more than 80 response teams were mobilized, including employees, police, ambulances and firefighters.

JET2 has been approached for comment.

Squawk Alert, which tracks commercial airlines declaring emergencies, said on site X: “The crew of Jet2 flight EXS83LV from London to Fuerteventura has declared an emergency and is heading to Faro.”

Local reports stated that there were 179 people on board and that the red alert was issued at 10.24 local time, about half an hour before the plane was due to land.

Earlier this month, a plane full of tourists returning from the UK was forced to divert due to an airborne toilet malfunction.

Ryanair flight FR1667 should have arrived in Bristol around 5pm on 8 December after leaving Fuerteventura at lunchtime.

But it soon headed for the neighboring Canary Island of Lanzarote after its 3.5-hour journey after “some toilets” stopped working, according to local air traffic controllers.

It was not immediately clear this morning exactly what the problem was, which in the past has caused passengers to have to use bottles to relieve themselves.

The plane landed in Lanzarote just before 15:00 on December 8, after being in the air for an hour and a half.

Spanish air traffic controllers said on social media: “The flight crew of the flight from Fuerteventura to Bristol wanted to return to Lanzarote due to problems with some toilets.

“It landed without any problems.”

Five days ago, a Jet2 flight from Edinburgh to Tenerife had to be given priority landing after a cabin crew member was attacked by a passenger.

Air traffic controllers at Tenerife South Airport allowed the pilot to shorten the plane’s journey “as much as possible” during landing.

The crew requested medical assistance and police assistance to meet the plane during landing.

A Jet2 spokesman said afterwards: ‘We can confirm that police were called to remove a disruptive passenger from flight LS739.’