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10th August 2018
09:38am BST
A plane travelling from Flordia in the U.S. to London Gatwick had to make an emergency landing at Shannon airport this morning.
Virgin Atlantic flight VS-50A was approximately an hour west of Ireland when they contacted Shannon airport when they issued a Mayday alert and asked if they could divert the plane.
Independent.ie is reporting that while the plane was on route to the Shannon, authorities on the ground were coordinating an emergency response involving Gardaí, the HSE and the local fire service.
Fire brigade units from Shannon Town, the Gardaí attended the airport while other fire units from Ennis were on standby.
The plane landed safely at about 7:20 am where 200 passengers were disembarked at the terminal.
They are now waiting in the airport lounge for a replacement jet to continue on with their journey.
Engineers were deployed to check for the source of the smoke while fire crews boarded the aircraft to carry out an inspection.
An airline spokeswoman said: “Our flight diverted to Shannon as a precautionary measure after reports of smoke onboard. The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority, and we’re now doing all we can to get our customers to their final destination as quickly as possible. We'd like to apologise to our customers for the disruption to their journey and thank them for their patience.”
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