Jet2 has issued an update on why a flight from Dalaman to Newcastle was forced to divert in the early hours of Monday morning.
The Jet2 flight, LS652, took off from Dalaman Airport, Turkey at 11.17pm on Sunday evening and headed for Newcastle, where it was due to land at 1.45am in the early hours of Monday.
But after just an hour and 20 minutes the plane was forced to divert to Sofia, Bulgaria after a passenger required medical attention.
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The flight then took off again and continued its journey to Newcastle, where it landed almost two hours later than planned at 3.36am on Monday.
Now, a Jet2 spokesperson has confirmed the nature of the diversion and has explained why.
They said: "Flight LS562 from Dalaman to Newcastle diverted to Sofia yesterday due to a customer requiring medical attention. We can confirm that the aircraft departed Sofia for Newcastle shortly afterwards and we would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
Flight tracking service Flight Radar 24 showed how the plane took off heading North West out of Dalaman, heading towards the UK, but was forced to change direction and make an unexpected stop at Sofia Airport in Bulgaria.
It comes after a Jet2 flight on the reverse route from Newcastle to Dalaman was forced to turn around after it faced a technical issue after take-off earlier this month on September 1.
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The September 1 flight was forced to circle over the North East for 40 minutes after taking off before returning to Newcastle Airport where passengers were transferred to another aircraft.
A TUI flight from the Greek island of Skiathos was also diverted shortly after taking off earlier this month when it required an additional fuel stop at Thessaloniki.
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