Passengers Flee Moroccan Flight During Emergency Landing in Spain

What happened?

An Air Arabia flight from Morocco to Turkey made an unexpected stopover on the Palma airport runways at 8:30 pm after reporting that a diabetic passenger was feeling unwell and needed urgent medical care, reports AFP, citing airport authorities.

At this point, about 20 passengers decided to flee through the airport runways when the ambulance proceeded to evacuate the supposedly sick person, forcing the authorities to stop all operations in compliance with safety protocols, according to the Civil Guard.

Was it a set-up?

According to El Pais, citing the investigators, it was a fictitious ploy to illegally enter Spain. The passenger who had complained of discomfort was taken to the hospital, where he was declared in perfect health and arrested by the police for "aiding illegal immigration and violating the law on foreigners".

As a result, this incident caused a four-hour shutdown at Palma de Mallorca airport. Thirteen planes bound for Palma were diverted to other airports and sixteen outbound flights suffered significant delays, according to airport authorities.