An Emirates flight heading to London Heathrow was forced to land in Frankfurt on Thursday after a passenger suffered a medical emergency in the air.
Cabin crew on Emirates flight EK31 from Dubai had to provide medical support to one of the passengers until the aircraft landed in Germany and they were disembarked to receive further attention.
Customers had taken off at 11.25am (8.25am UK time) and were due to touch down in the capital at 4.10pm.
Just before 3pm, live tracker service FlightRadar reported that the aircraft had transmitted emergency squawk code 7700 and was descending near Frankfurt, where it landed around 4.14pm local time.
Emirates has since apologised to its customers for the delay, saying “the health and safety of our passengers and crew is always our highest priority.”
Passengers are expected to depart Frankfurt at 6pm local time, the airline said.
An Emirates spokesperson said: “Emirates can confirm that flight EK31 from Dubai to London Heathrow diverted to Frankfurt on 1 October due to a medical emergency involving a passenger onboard.
“Our cabin crew provided assistance during the flight, and medical support was arranged on arrival. The aircraft landed safely in Frankfurt, where the passenger disembarked to receive further medical attention.
“The flight is expected to continue its journey to London Heathrow at approximately 18:00 local Frankfurt time.
“We apologise to customers for the delay. The health and safety of our passengers and crew is always our highest priority.”
Last month, tens of thousands of passengers across the UK were impacted by two separate technical issues caused by the National Air Traffic Services (Nats).
On 21 September, a “connectivity issue” at Nats’ Prestwick centre grounded flights at airports in Edinburgh, Leeds Bradford, Belfast and Manchester.
It followed a “software defect” issue on 8 September, which impacted around 2,163 flights and caused major delays and cancellations for several days.
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