Palma de Mallorca – Flight chaos on Friday evening at the airport of Palma de Mallorca (Spain)!
The airport operator “Aena” had tweeted that air traffic had been suspended due to an incident when passengers disembarked. Several approaching passenger planes, including at least one flight from Germany, were diverted. Machines that were ready to start could not take off.
As the Spanish state broadcaster “RTVE” reported, the pilot of the “AirArabia” flight from Casablance (Morocco) to Istanbul (Turkey) asked for permission to land at Son Sant Joan airport because there was a diabetes patient on board and urgently would need medical help. The plane landed around 8.30 p.m.
While the cabin crew waited for an ambulance to arrive, a group of 15 to 20 passengers left the plane, ran across the tarmac and then hid. The police looked for them – and stopped all air traffic.
Allegedly sick person in police custody
The allegedly ill man was taken to the Son Llàtzer hospital in Palma together with an accompanying person.
There she then fled! According to “RTVE”, the person responsible for the emergency landing was immediately released from the hospital and is in police custody.
Investigators from the Guardia Civil and employees of a security service searched the airport with around 20 vehicles in order to locate the escaped travelers. According to investigators, they left the plane with the intention of entering Spain illegally.
The fugitives had not been found by morning. The police suspect that they made it out of the airport area. Now the passenger list is to be checked to find out who the people who have been piled up are.
Flight operations resumed after around three hours. 13 flights had to be diverted.