Europe’s largest low cost airline Ryanair has explained this morning that Tuesday’s emergency on an early morning flight from Dublin to Palma was forced to divert to Bordeaux after a passenger fell ill.
The airline has told the Bulletin: “This flight from Dublin to Palma de Mallorca (18 Jun) diverted to Bordeaux when a passenger became ill on board. Medics met the aircraft on arrival at Bordeaux Airport and the passenger was offloaded before this flight continued to Palma de Mallorca following a short delay.”
The Ryanair flight FR6187 declared an emergency with squawk code 7700. A Squawk 7700 code indicates an emergency onboard the aircraft. It may be due to technical, environmental, or medical issues that results in an emergency situation.
The Squawk 7700 can either be instructed by the ATC or can be put into the transponders by pilots. With the emergency code activated, all controllers (including ground controllers) are aware that the aircraft is dealing with an emergency situation. Ground controllers can alert emergency crew and keep the staff on standby before the arrival of the aircraft.
Ryanair flight FR6187 made a departure from Dublin Airport (DUB) at 07:24 local time on Tuesday morning. The flight crew then set course normally, climbing to FL370 (37,000 feet) for the southerly route to Palma before the emergency was declared.