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Published: | Updated:
A flight from Tenerife to Birmingham descended into chaos after the pilot suffered a suspected heart attack mid-flight.
Jet2 flight LS1266 was forced to perform an emergency landing in Portugal late on Thursday after the captain began ‘feeling unwell’ at 30,000ft.
The terrifying incident saw airline staff sprinting down the aisle in a desperate search for any medics amongst the passengers who could treat the captain.
The aircraft, an Airbus A321, is understood to have suddenly dropped altitude when the crew were forced to divert and make the emergency landing in Porto at 2.11am on Friday.
When the flight landed, paramedics rushed to the plane and performed emergency first aid before the pilot was rushed to hospital.
However, up to 220 passengers were left stranded for more than 13 hours at Francisco Sa Carneiro airport as they were forced to wait for another pilot to fly them home.
Passengers have revealed how they were grounded for over an hour on the tarmac, unable to leave the aircraft.
It is understood the airline told customers that accommodation was ‘too expensive’ so they were ‘left to wander around’.
A Jet2 pilot suffered a suspected heart attack, forcing the late-night Tenerife-Birmingham flight to make an emergency landing in Porto (File image)
The Birmingham-bound passengers were stranded in Portugal for 13 hours before another captain arrived from Manchester to fly them home on Friday (File image)
One passenger told The Irish Sun: ‘We were stranded in Portugal for over 13 hours without accommodation. They wouldn’t let us off the plane itself for over an hour.
‘Then we were just left to wander around. There was nowhere to stay. They said accommodation was too expensive.’
The airline then flew a pilot from Manchester to Porto so that the stranded passengers could make it home. Jet2 later told customers the pilot had ‘suffered a heart attack in the cockpit’.
Another passenger told the newspaper that their partner became startled when they woke up to the ‘chaos’.
Their two-year-old had burst into tears as ‘lights began flashing’ and the plane ‘dropped so quickly’.
They said the crew were ‘visibly upset’ and ‘seeking a doctor’.
A Jet2 spokesperson said: ‘Flight LS1266 from Tenerife to Birmingham diverted to Porto on Thursday (21st May), due to one of the pilots feeling unwell.
‘At no point was safety compromised, and customers subsequently continued their journey. We would like to apologise to customers for this unforeseen delay.’
The Daily Mail has approached the airline for further comment.
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