A PASSENGER plane has been forced to return to a Scottish airport after declaring a mid-air emergency.
The EasyJet flight EZY17WA, travelling from Glasgow 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 where it appears to have landed at around 10am.
Live Squawk 7700: Track EZY17WA live now with Plane Finder https://t.co/BukGa7iCH7 #avgeek #EZY17WA pic.twitter.com/dbwhf9MA4O
— Plane Finder (@planefinder) October 21, 2021
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 wellbeing of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority.”
Glasgow Airport has been contacted for comment.
This is the latest in a series of similar incidents in Scotland's airspace in recent days.
On 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.
Two days earlier, a TUI flight travelling from Aberdeen to Tenerife, declared the same emergency alert around half an hour into its four-hour journey.
It had to later land at Glasgow Airport due to a cabin crew member requiring "urgent" medical attention.
This is a breaking story and will be updated
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here