A 17-year-old male has been detained under the Mental Health Act after ‘encroaching’ onto the airfield at Manchester Airport overnight on Friday, Greater Manchester Police has confirmed. Officers were called just after 11.20pm on Friday (August 21) after a man got onto the airfield. The incident lasted for around 15 minutes, a spokesperson for Manchester Airport said, before he was taken to hospital from the scene.
Flights diverted and held
The incident resulted in seven flights being diverted elsewhere, while at least 17 flights were held. This resulted in further delays to operations. Greater Manchester Police has now confirmed that the man was a 17-year-old who has been detained under the Mental Health Act. Police said that enquiries are ongoing.
Airport returns to normal
Flights returned to normal at Manchester Airport by Saturday morning and a temporary fix was put in place following the security breach, an airport spokesperson confirmed on Saturday. The diverted flights included a TUI flight from Boa Vista in Cape Verde, which according to Flightradar24 had to be diverted to East Midlands, a Ryanair flight from Agadir in Morocco diverted to Birmingham and an easyJet flight from Barcelona diverted to Liverpool.
Passengers praise response
One passenger arriving at Manchester Airport shortly after the incident praised airport staff for how they handled the situation. Rai Hirst, from Bolton, told the Manchester Evening News: "We had no idea what was going on and what the incident was, but the airport was 10 out of 10. After learning this morning that it was because somebody was ill and something happened on the ground, well it put’s everything into perspective - we’re on our way back from holiday but someone’s in their darkest moment."
"For minutes of inconvenience is worth it to know somebody is safe. The airport response was seamless, almost as if it was rehearsed. The team on the ground was just brilliant and so were the TUI staff." The staff went above and beyond in the early hours of the morning. They made sure everybody was safe, everybody was ok. They answered any questions. I didn’t even think there were that many staff who worked at the airport overnight. I just hope that person gets all the help they need.
Commenting on the Manchester Evening News Facebook page, Angela Slater described her experience of being on board the TUI flight from Cape Verde which was diverted to East Midlands Airport. She wrote: "Our flight from Cape Verde was one affected. Had to divert to the East Midlands, refuel and then come back to Manchester. Should have landed around 11.30pm instead [it was] 1.30am-ish, got home at 3.30am."
"But the flight [crew and captain] were amazing, kept us informed as much as they could and did what they had to do in a crazy situation. We didn’t have enough fuel to stay up in the air for an unguaranteed time. Think we did about 7 laps before diverting. Never ever seen so many planes up in the sky when actually been on a flight before."
