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- A flight scheduled to fly from Manchester, England, to Madeira, a group of Portuguese islands, on Monday had to make an emergency landing after the pilot fell ill in the cockpit.
- The First Officer on board Jet2 Flight LS765 successfully diverted the plane to Porto, about 750 miles away from Madeira instead.
- An off-duty pilot who was on the plane as a passenger also entered the cockpit to help out.
- It’s not entirely clear what happened to the original pilot, and Jet2 has so far declined to give specifics.
- MailOnline reported that the pilot had fainted, and the BBC cited a passenger as saying that he had "drifted in and out of consciousness."
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
A budget airline flight was forced to divert and make an emergency landing 750 miles from its destination after the pilot unexpectedly fell ill in the cockpit during the flight.
Jet 2 Flight LS765 had been scheduled to fly from Manchester, United Kingdom, to Madeira, a cluster of Portuguese islands in the Atlantic Ocean on Monday.
But because the pilot fell ill, the plane was forced to divert to Porto, located in the east of Portugal’s mainland, instead. Porto is around 750 miles from Madeira.
FlightRadar24/Business Insider
Jet2 has so far declined to specify what happened to the pilot. It mentioned only "an onboard medical situation" in a Monday tweet, and told Business Insider in a Tuesday statement that "one of the pilots [had been] feeling unwell."
The pilot had fainted in the cockpit, MailOnline reported. Jet2 did not comment on the MailOnline report.
A stewardess mentioned that the pilot "had drifted in and out of consciousness," the BBC cited a passenger, identified as Sheila, as saying.
After the pilot took ill, the plane’s first officer successfully diverted the plane and made the emergency landing, a spokesman for Jet2 told Business Insider.
An off-duty pilot who had been on the plane as a passenger also entered the cockpit to "offer assistance," the spokesman told Business Insider. It was not specified what the off-duty pilot did to assist.
The off-duty pilot "didn’t come out [of the cockpit] until he helped the pilot off the plane when we landed," MailOnline cited another passenger, Nicholas Banks, as saying.
Shutterstock/Balate Dorin
Passengers on board the flight "had no idea whatsoever" what was happening at the time, the BBC cited Sheila as saying.
"It could have been medical, a fire, mechanical problems," Sheila said, according to the BBC. "Everyone was really concerned."
Medical staff carried the original pilot off the plane after the emergency landing, the BBC and MailOnline reported, citing various passengers.
The passengers were stranded in Porto for a few hours on Monday. A replacement aircraft and crew have since taken them to Madeira, Jet2 told Business Insider.
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Source: Business Insider – ama@businessinsider.com (Alexandra Ma)