Two planes, one from Transvania Airlines and another from Air Astana, a low-cost Dutch airline, have landed safely at Faro Airport after experiencing technical problems. Both planes were diverted to Faro Airport and escorted by Portuguese F-16 fighter jets, and both landed safely in order to make repairs. Fortunately, fighter jets do not often have to be sent to help planes land, but they are on standby for emergencies such as this. The F-16 jets are based at No.5 air base at Monte Real, near Lisbon.
Peter Foster, CEO and president of Astana Airlines, commented, “The flight, carrying our technical personnel on its return from heavy maintenance at OGMA, developed serious control problems and was escorted to Beja. Thankfully our technical personnel are now safe.” Air Astana also issued a statement on Monday, stating that “the aircraft had deviations of stability of the roll-axis”, which meant that the plane needed to make an emergency landing.
The Transvania plane was not on route to Faro Airport, but was safely escorted there after it declared an emergency not long after take-off from Funchal on Madeira island. The plane reported that there were pressurisation problems, which is why an emergency landing had to be made. The flight was travelling from Funchal to Amsterdam, and had 149 passengers on board when the issues occurred.
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