A BOEING 757 with 236 passengers on board was forced to make an unscheduled stop at Faro International Airport after the pilot had been alerted about a possible engine failure.
The plane, belonging to low-cost English airline Jet2, was travelling from Lanzarote in the Canary Islands to Leeds when the pilot became concerned about the second engine.
The navy were alerted that the plane would be landing at Faro and that there was a possibility it could crash into the sea or the Ria Formosa.
The alert was received at 12.07pm on March 8, by the Centro Distrital de Operações de Socorro (CDOS), the district centre for rescue operations, who activated an emergency plan.
The commander of Reis Águas, said that within seven minutes, the Faro harbourmaster’s office had put all its boats in the water, while the Olhão harbourmaster was placed on alert.
Damage limitation
The boats were also preparing to implement a plan to limit pollution damage in the sea if the plane were to crash into the water, when the plane landed safely at Faro at 12.20pm. The emergency was declared over at 12.47pm.
No damage or injuries were registered to the plane or passengers, who were transferred into the waiting area of the airport.
Once mechanics gave the all clear, the plane took off at 7.30pm and completed the journey to Leeds.
Director of Faro Airport, António Correia Mendes, said that this was “the normal procedure, when there is an alert of this kind”, and that all resources were deployed “in accordance with what is planned for situations of this type”.
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