Plane diverts after Jet2 pilot on Tenerife suffers ‘heart attack’ in the air

Passengers said it was ‘chaos’ on board as cabin crew searched for a medic

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A flight made an emergency landing in Portugal after a pilot suffered a suspected heart attack 30,000ft in the air.

Passengers said cabin crew were searching for a medic on the plane, which was carrying 220 passengers, after the pilot suddenly became ill. The emergency forced the plane to make an unscheduled landing at Francisco Sa Carneiro Airport near Porto, Portugal.

The Birmingham-bound Jet2 flight LS1266 had departed Tenerife on Friday (May 22) and was cruising at 30,000ft when the ‘chaos’ erupted.

Passengers said lights were flicking as the plane plummeted into a rapid descent and children cried as it quickly lost altitude, reports The Mirror.

“My partner and I were asleep when we were woken by chaos,” a passenger told The Sun.

“Lights began flashing and hostesses who were visibly upset, seeking a doctor. Our two-year-old began crying like many other children on board because the aircraft was dropping so quickly for an emergency landing.”

The aircraft landed in Porto at 2.11 am local time and emergency services boarded immediately. Medical staff attended to the pilot in the cockpit before he was taken to the hospital.

Passengers are understood to have remained on board for over an hour before disembarking and then spent about 13 hours in the terminal while the airline organised replacement crew.

A pilot flew in from Manchester to take travellers to Birmingham on a different aircraft.

“We were stranded in Portugal for over 13 hours without accommodation… There was nowhere to stay. They said accommodation was too expensive,” one passenger reportedly said.

Jet2 said the incident was due to one of the pilots feeling unwell.

“Flight LS1266 from Tenerife to Birmingham diverted to Porto on Thursday (21st May), due to one of the pilots feeling unwell,” Jet2 told The Sun.

“At no point was safety compromised, and customers subsequently continued their journey. We would like to apologise to customers for this unforeseen delay.”