An easyJet flight was forced to return to Bristol Airport after just over one hour in the air after experiencing a technical issue.
EasyJet flight EZY2963 took off at 10.27am on Thursday 2 January for what was meant to be a three-hour flight to Marrakech, Morocco.
However, roughly 30 minutes into the flight, as the Airbus A320 was passing over northwest France, the plane diverted its course and turned back around.
The flight landed back in Bristol at 11.38am, just over an hour since departing from the UK.
EasyJet confirmed that the flight did return to its departure airport shortly after take-off due to a “technical issue”, however no further details were given as to what the issue was.
“The aircraft landed normally and was met by emergency services as a routine and precautionary measure,” a spokesperson for the airline told The Independent.
“Passengers disembarked into the terminal where we provided refreshments and a replacement aircraft and crew were arranged to continue the flight that afternoon.
Data from FlightAware shows that an easyJet flight from Bristol to Marrakech departed at 3.24pm later that day, arriving in the Moroccan capital at 7.27pm.
“The safety of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority and easyJet operates its fleet of aircraft in strict compliance with all manufacturers’ guidelines,” the spokesperson added.
“We would like to apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused.”
The incident comes one week after another easyJet flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Bari, Italy, after a teenage girl allegedly threatened cabin crew and tried to open the plane door.
Flight EZY8556 left Antalya, Turkey at 11.20pm local time on 27 December for a four-hour journey to London Gatwick, but just over two hours in it was diverted.
A passenger who was on the flight claimed that the plane landed in Italy due to security reasons after a girl caused chaos onboard.
The passenger told The Sun that the girl had a series of outbursts before she “tried to open the door and she broke the handle” and “threatened to stab a crew member.”
EasyJet confirmed that its flight on 27 December was “diverted to Bari and was met by police after landing due to a passenger behaving disruptively on board”.
“EasyJet’s cabin crew are trained to assess and evaluate all situations and acted quickly and appropriately to ensure that the safety of the flight and other passengers was not compromised at any time,” it added.
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