Royal Air Force Typhoon jets have escorted a Pakistani International Airlines Airbus A330 to Stansted Airport this afternoon.
The aircraft landed at 14:50 GMT.
An Essex Police spokesman said:
“An aircraft was diverted to Stansted Airport at around 3pm this afternoon, Tuesday, February 7, while over UK airspace en-route to Heathrow Airport due to reports of a disruptive passenger on board.
The plane is currently at the airport and officers are making enquiries. There is no disruption to the ongoing operation of Stansted Airport.
This is not believed to be a hijack situation or terror matter.”
Stansted was been designated by the UK Government as its preferred airport for any hijacked planes requesting to land in the UK. This is because its ‘design allows a hijacked airliner to be isolated well away from any terminal buildings or runways, allowing the airport to continue to operate while negotiations are carried out, or even while an assault or rescue mission is undertaken’.
For this reason Stansted has been involved in more hijack incidents than might be expected for an airport of its size.
Perhaps we should present the disruptive passenger with a bill for the call out charge. Think twice about doing it again 🙂
Or better still David-request he leave the Aircraft immediately mid flight..:)
This is standard procedure. Any hijacked aircraft will be placed in a certain location well away from the rest of the airport, pre arranged, that has certain “modifications” should it be necessary to use CRW Wing.
If a passenger call-out of “Hi-Jack” during a flight results in military typhoon escorts, I wonder what would have happened if the call-out made was “Sue’s-side”.