A medical emergency on board an aircraft leads to a landing in Mallorca. Passengers storm the runway, paralyzing the airport for hours. The authorities have bad suspicions.
Palma – The international airport of Palma de Mallorca was paralyzed for more than three hours late in the evening after an unusual incident.
A machine of a Moroccan airline had made an unscheduled stopover on the way from Casablanca to Istanbul due to a medical emergency, reported the “Mallorca Zeitung” and “El Pais”. According to the reports, the authorities assumed that it was a targeted action aimed at illegally entering Spain.
When an ambulance arrived at the Moroccan plane to pick up a passenger and his companion who were allegedly suffering from diabetes shock, around 20 other passengers ran onto the Son Sant Joan airfield, so that flight operations had to be suspended. Approaching aircraft were diverted according to the airport operator Aena, among others to Ibiza, Menorca or Barcelona. Aena tweeted a total of 13 arriving machines were diverted.
Five arrests – passenger simulated
Police and security officers started the search for the passengers, of whom at least five could be arrested in a community near the airport, as the “Mallorca Zeitung” wrote, citing the police. Investigators assumed that the other people had also managed to climb over the airport fence.
No complaints were found in the hospital for the passenger with the medical emergency. He apparently only simulated a diabetic coma, reported the “Mallorca Zeitung”. His companion had already disappeared when he arrived at the hospital. The alleged patient was arrested on suspicion of facilitating illegal entry. dpa
