19 January 2024 , 13:21
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A Ryanair plane heading from the UK to the Canary Islands has had to divert to Portugal following an "on-board fight" that led to one arrest.
Portuguese police sources said seven passengers had been involved in an altercation but there has not yet been any official comment from authorities in Portugal. One well-placed insider said “all, if not all” were British. The plane left London Luton airport at 8am and was due to reach Lanzarote at 12.15pm local time today. It was diverted to Faro instead and touched down at the airport in Portugal’s Algarve region at around 10.50am local time.
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Ryanair has been approached for a comment about the incident on board flight FR3511. Last month three Ryanair planes from the UK had to divert to Faro for different reasons. On December 20, a Boeing 737 operated by the budget airline landed at the Algarve airport with 202 people on board after diverting from its original route of London Stansted to Lisbon because of a technical problem. A ‘red code’ alert was issued and led to 35 emergency response vehicles and nearly 80 responders including firefighters and civil protection workers being put on standby, although the plane landed safely.
On December 12 another Ryanair plane heading from Manchester to Tenerife South had to divert to the same airport amid another ‘red alert’, with that incident also being blamed on a technical issue with the aircraft. And the Tuesday before that a Ryanair plane heading from London Stansted to Morocco landed at Faro in similar circumstances after the pilot fell ill. A spokesman for Ryanair said after the December 5 incident: “This flight from Stansted to Morocco diverted to Faro when one of the pilots became ill. The aircraft landed normally, and passengers were transferred to an alternative aircraft operated by another crew before continuing to Morocco.“
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