A holiday flight departing from the popular tourist island of Gran Canaria was forced into a dramatic emergency landing in northern Spain after a passenger suffered a fatal heart attack onboard.
Mid-Air Medical Emergency
The incident occurred on the afternoon of Sunday, 30 November, aboard a Eurowings aircraft carrying nearly 200 people from the Spanish island to Hamburg, Germany. Reports confirm an elderly male passenger, a German pensioner travelling with his daughter, fell critically ill during the journey.
Crew members and fellow passengers immediately intervened to assist the man. Recognising the severity of the situation, the pilot made the decisive call to divert the aircraft from its planned route.
Rapid Diversion to Bilbao
The flight was urgently redirected to Bilbao Airport in Spain's Basque Country. The pilot notified air traffic control, who swiftly activated an emergency protocol. This allowed an ambulance from the Basque Health Service direct access to the runway upon landing.
To facilitate the fastest possible landing, air traffic controllers prioritised the distressed aircraft over other flights and shortened its flight path. A helicopter was also mobilised as part of the emergency response.
Despite the rapid efforts, emergency services who rushed onto the plane after it landed were unable to resuscitate the man. His death was confirmed at the scene.
Aftermath and Passenger Disruption
Following the tragic event, the aircraft was unloaded and the man's body was removed. The Spanish newspaper ABC reported that the remaining passengers were compelled to stay overnight in Bilbao. They were expected to continue their journey to Hamburg the following day, Monday.
This incident follows a similar tragedy in March, when a flight from London to Gibraltar with 150 passengers onboard was forced to make an emergency landing after a British man died of natural causes over the Cantabrian Sea.
In a separate but concurrent aviation development, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued a precautionary instruction on Friday, 29 November. The directive concerns software updates for some Airbus A320 aircraft, which may cause travel disruption across the UK in the coming days. This action comes after an Associated Press report last month detailed an incident where a JetBlue A320 experienced a "flight control issue," possibly linked to software, causing a sudden altitude drop and emergency landing in Florida that injured at least 15 passengers.
