Flight schedules have returned to normal at Manchester Airport this weekend following an overnight security breach on Friday which resulted in seven flights being diverted and at least 17 being held, which had the knock-on effect of more delays.
Incident details
Shortly after 11.20pm on Friday August 21, police were called to the airport after a man 'encroached' 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. It is understood the incident was mental health-related.
The incident was resolved with flights returning back to normal by the morning, the airport spokesperson confirmed, and a temporary fix has been put in place following the security breach.
Diverted flights
Among the seven flights diverted were a TUI flight from Boa Vista in Cape Verde, which according to Flightradar24 had to be diverted to the East Midlands, a Ryanair flight from Agadir in Morocco diverted to Birmingham and an easyJet flight from Barcelona diverted to Liverpool.
One passenger who arrived just after the incident praised airport staff for how they handled the situation. Rai Hirst told the Manchester Evening News: "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."
Current delays and cancellations
Flight schedules are back to normal this Sunday. If you are due to fly it’s important to monitor the status of your flight. Below are delayed flights by 30 minutes or more, and cancelled flights from Manchester Airport as of 9.50am on Sunday August 23, according to FlightRadar24.com.
Delayed flights:
- 11.25am easyJet flight U292 to Belfast, estimated departure 3.11pm
- 1.30pm Ryanair flight FR555 to Dublin, estimated departure 2.20pm
- 2.20pm easyJet flight U22181 to Basel, estimated departure 3.02pm
- 3.25pm easyJet flight U2711 to Newquay, estimated departure 4.10pm
- 3.55pm easyJet flight U22009 to Tenerife, estimated departure 4.42pm
- 5.45pm easyJet flight U22121 to Venice, estimated departure 6.23pm
- 6.40pm easyJet flight U22237 to Copenhagen, estimated departure 7.23pm
Cancelled flights:
- The 11.10am Cathay Pacific flight CX216 to Hong Kong is cancelled
- The 12.25am SAS flight SK4610 to Oslo is cancelled
