Aircraft 'fault' prompted emergency landing of Inverness-bound AlbaStar Boeing 737 flight
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A FAULT on the aircraft was the reason passengers were given as to why an Inverness-bound Boeing 737 had to make an emergency landing yesterday, it is understood.
The airline AlbaStar's jet from Palma de Mallorca, which was due into Dalcross at 9.10am, was forced instead to divert to Glasgow, where emergency services were on standby and all 185 passengers and crew were safely evacuated.
So far, the airline has failed to respond to a request for comment.
But one of the passengers aboard flight AP6479 has now contacted the Inverness Courier to describe the moment passengers realised something unusual was happening.
The passenger, who did not wish to be named, said that moment came when people in the cabin could feel the jet descending from its cruising altitude even though it was still around an hour away from its intended destination.
Related: Inverness-bound Boeing 737 makes emergency landing in Glasgow
Passengers were initially informed it was because of turbulence up ahead, but this soon changed to 'technical difficulties', with the plane initially heading for Edinburgh before opting instead for Glasgow Airport, where it landed safely.
The passenger said: "We [descended] from something like 38,000ft to 10,000ft. I felt the drop – it felt like we were starting to descend [for a landing] but it was still like an hour to go of the flight, so it was a bit too early [for that].
She continued: "Then they said 'there's a bit of turbulence', and then I think about 10 minutes later they said 'we are having technical difficulties and we are having to go to Edinburgh'.
"Another five minutes later they said 'due to this particular technical difficulty we're not going to Edinburgh any more, we're going to Glasgow'.
"So about half-an-hour later we landed in Glasgow. On the flight they didn't actually say much after that, just said 'technical difficulties'."
She added that the atmosphere aboard the aircraft remained "quite calm" during the descent, and staff on the ground were very quick in arranging alternative transport to get people to their Dalcross destination.
"The staff [on the plane] were quite calm," she said. "People were having little chats here and there, but passengers were mainly quite calm. There were a couple of ladies who got a bit upset, but I presume they're not good at flying anyway, so hearing something like that maybe upset them a little bit."
She added that when the plane landed she was able to tell the plane was in no immediate danger, because even though fire engines were visible, the ground staff were unloading the luggage before the passengers.
"So we got to Glasgow and they offloaded the luggage, offloaded us, we collected the luggage and at that point the TUI [travel agency] staff said 'we will actually organise some coaches to get you back to Inverness'.
By 11.45am the coaches had left the airport and passengers made it back to Dalcross.
"They handled it quite swiftly," added the passenger, who praised the customer service. "It was just we felt a little puzzled at certain points in time. But yes, they dealt with the situation quite well given the circumstances, but they didn't say at the end what the technical issue was."
