A Jet2 flight was forced to make an unexpected landing at London Stansted after jetting off from Glasgow due to a “minor fault indication”.
Flight LS135 departed from Glasgow just after 7am on Monday heading to Rome, Italy, when it made an emergency diversion.
The Boeing 737 aircraft had just travelled past Paris, France, around 8.20am when it made a U-turn around the city and headed back to the UK, data from flight tracker FlightRadar shows.
The flight usually takes four hours and was due to arrive in Rome by 11am, however, the aircraft instead landed at London Stansted Airport just after 9am.
The plane reportedly issued a 7700 squawk alert, which indicates an emergency situation, at around an hour and a half into the flight.
A spokesperson for Jet2 told The Independent: “We can confirm that flight LS135 from Glasgow to Rome followed standard operating procedure and diverted to London Stansted this morning [20January], due to a minor fault indication.”
“The aircraft landed safely, and customers were transferred onto a replacement aircraft to continue their journey.”
It is unclear what the minor fault was. One passenger told The Scottish Sun: “There is apparently a problem with the fuel gauge apparently that was showing fuel levels way lower than expected.
“[A] fire truck checked us out when we landed and no sign of any leaking fuel. We are still on the runway.”
“Captain [is] now saying there’s another available plane here and they’re going to try to move us across that one.
Data from Flightradar shows that another flight was scheduled for later in the day departing from Stansted at 10.48am, meaning passengers eventually got to their destination in Rome just before 2pm.
While all airlines experience their share of unexpected diversions and landings, Jet2 aircraft have had to make the call to land early in various incidents over the past few months.
In August, a similar issue occurred when a Jet2 flight to Manchester made a priority landing at the northern airport after cabin crew declared an emergency squawk code 7700.
The aircraft was on its way back from Malaga when it discovered a “fault indication”.
In September, a man died after falling ill on a Jet2 flight from Bulgaria to Liverpool, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing in Cologne, Germany.
Crew members declared the emergency after the man reportedly suffered a cardiac arrest.
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