UK-bound flight forced to make EMERGENCY LANDING in Portugal after windscreen cracks
GETTY/TWIITER*BRISTOLGIGCLUB The windscreen damage was too severe to risk trying to continue on to Bristol Airport
The plane, which took off from Las Palmas in Gran Canaria on Monday evening, was forced to plunge from 30,000ft to 10,000ft after the pilot noticed damage to the windscreen. The Thomson flight landed at Porto Airport, where passengers were held while they waited for another flight.
Nobody we've spoken to knows what is going on and that includes the airport staff Airline passenger
One passenger told the Bristol Post: “Our plane from Gran Canaria has made an emergency landing in Portugal. “The cockpit windscreen was cracked so had to descend from 30,000ft to 10,000ft before making an emergency landing. “We've been here about two hours now. Everyone is OK but a bit fed up as we are not really being told very much about what is going on other than being shunted from one part of the airport to the other.”
TWITTER*BRISTOLGIGCLUB This picture on social media shows the extent of the damage
She added: "Nobody we've spoken to knows what is going on and that includes the airport staff." Passengers were allegedly only told that the aircraft had suffered a ‘technical fault’ during the flight, and only learned about the windscreen damage once they had landed.
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She said: "There were some very nervous looking people but on the whole most people stayed calm. We had realised something was wrong before they announced it due to the sudden descent mid-flight. There was a big clap on landing. “It was the flight stewards that told us to look at the windscreen when we disembarked. “Everyone is remarkably upbeat considering.”
GETTY The passengers were forced to wait in Porto Airport while arrangements were made to fly them home