Gatwick Airport: Fire engines swarm runway as easyJet plane forced to divert

An easyJet flight leaving Gatwick Airport today was forced to divert back to the major London airport after take off.

Shortly before 4.30pm today an easyJet flight bound for Basta, on the French island of Corisica was forced to return to Gatwick, a spokesperson for the airport has confirmed. Delayed passengers have taken to social media to share their frustration. One man complained his flight faced a two hour delay but it is not clear what has caused this travel disruption.

A live flight radar shows the plane, an Airbus A321-251NX, back at the airport at 4.24pm. It had reportedly left around an hour and 50 minutes beforehand. At around the same time a local resident spotted 'multiple ambulances' heading towards the airport.

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An easyJet spokesperson said: "easyJet can confirm that flight EZY8461 from Gatwick to Bastia today (26 July) returned to Gatwick and requested a priority landing on arrival into London Gatwick due to a technical issue. The aircraft landed normally and was met by emergency services purely as a precautionary measure in line with procedures, and all passengers disembarked normally.

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"A replacement aircraft and crew has been arranged for passengers to continue their journey to Bastia today.The safety of our customers and crew is easyJet's highest priority and easyJet operates its fleet of aircraft in strict compliance with all manufacturers’ guidelines.”

It comes less than a month after an easyJet flight was forced to divert back to Manchester Airport. The flight, which was bound for Izmir, left the airport at around 5pm on June 30 before returning around an hour later.

The EZY2159 service bound for Izmir, Turkey, took off from Manchester Airport shortly before 5pm, and only got as far as Norfolk before suddenly diverting back to Manchester. A FlightRadar map showed the moment the planetook a dramatic U-turn over the North Sea before landing in Manchester again at around 5.50pm - roughly an hour after it departed.

The airline put the diversion down to a "passenger welfare issue". The disruption, easyJet said, was "out of our control" and considered "an extraordinary circumstance". In an update posted to the easyJet website, the budget airline said the flight was grounded overnight, with plans being made for another service to run on Tuesday morning.

A further update read: "We're sorry that your flight has been delayed overnight. This is due to a passenger welfare issue. We are working hard to arrange your new flight for tomorrow. Once again, we're very sorry for the disruption to your travel plans."

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