A Ryanair flight was forced to divert back to Porto after a false security report raised concerns among the crew.
Flight FR7073 took off from Francisco Sá Carneiro airport in Porto at 10.55pm on Tuesday, 22 September, for a two-hour journey to Dublin, Ireland.
After flying north towards northern Spain, the Boeing 737 made a U-turn just short of the Portuguese-Spanish border and diverted back towards Porto.
Reports from aviation news network Air Live said that the captain transmitted squawk code 7500 into the transponder, a universal aviation code indicating a hijack attempt or an unlawful intrusion into the flight deck.
The squawk code lets air traffic control know the flight needs help and alerts other security services.
While Ryanair did not specify what caused the squawk code to be transmitted, the airline said it returned to Porto due to a “false security report”.
“This flight from Porto to Dublin (22 September) returned to Porto shortly after take-off due to a false security report, which was quickly resolved before the flight continued to Dublin following a two hour and 33 minute delay,” a Ryanair spokesperson said.
The U-turn took place about 15 minutes into the short-haul flight. The plane landed at Porto’s airport around 35 minutes after take-off.
The plane landed in Porto just before 1am and took off for Dublin again half an hour later. The flight reached its final destination just after 3am.
This incident comes months after Israeli forces scrambled a pair of fighter jets to intercept a passenger plane after the pilot accidentally transmitted squawk code 7500.
LOT Polish Airlines flight 155, operated by Bulgaria’s Electra Airways, was carrying 180 passengers from Warsaw to Tel Aviv in July this year when it transmitted an alert that it had been hijacked.
Bulgaria and Turkey also scrambled aircraft to respond to the serious threat. The Israeli military said the fighter jets had been dispatched due to a “lack of contact with the aircraft”, but contact was soon established. LOT spokesperson Krzysztof Moczulski said an incorrectly set transponder caused the incident.
He said it was “most likely [a] human error”, and said an investigation has been launched, calling it an “absolutely exceptional event”.
The aircraft landed safely in Bulgaria after the incident.
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