Mid-air emergency onflight

A passenger plane was forced to return to Renfrewshire after declaring a mid-air emergency.

The EasyJet flight EZY17WA, travelling from Glasgow Airport to Birmingham, signalled the alert shortly after its departure at 9.18am.

It declared a Squawk 7700 while flying south towards the border.

It then returned to Glasgow Airport where it appears to have landed around 10am on Thursday.

It has since emerged the alert was due to a passenger requiring “urgent medical attention”.

An emergency squawk is used to identify an aircraft that has a possible issue and enables it to have priority over other air traffic.

A spokeswoman for EasyJet said: “EasyJet can confirm that flight EZY511 from Glasgow to Birmingham has returned to Glasgow due to a passenger requiring urgent medical attention and in line with procedures was met by emergency services on arrival.

“The safety and well-being of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority.”

A spokesman for Glasgow Airport confirmed it was a medical emergency.

He added: “The aircraft landed safely at approximately 10am and was met by our emergency services and duty safety officers as is standard procedure.”

This is the latest in a series of similar incidents in Scotland’s airspace in recent days.

Last Friday, a KLM Airways flight, travelling from Amsterdam to Calgary declared the emergency around half an hour into its journey.

It declared a Squawk 7700 while flying off the west coast of Scotland after a “technical defect”. It later landed at Prestwick Airport.

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