British Airways flight forced to divert mid-air after 'emergency on board'

A British Airways flight was forced to divert after the pilot issued an emergency "squawk". The plane, which was heading to Belfast, left London Heathrow on Saturday morning (July 26) but soon diverted to Manchester Airport.

It arrived at the airport and was met on the tarmac by emergency services. All of the 130 passengers managed to get off the plane safely while engineers carried out checks on the aircraft. It has been confirmed that the plane suffered an on board "depressurisation" issue which sparked the emergency diversion.

As reported by The Sun, it's believed the problem was caused by a sensor device issue. Technicians worked to resolve the issue while the passengers were able to travel to Belfast on a replacement plane.

Their flight was delayed by around three hours in total. An emergency "squawk" is issued by pilots via their transponder and notifies air traffic control of an urgent issue.

It comes after an easyJet plane bound for Bastia was forced to return to Gatwick Airport on Saturday afternoon. The EZY34AQ flight arrived back at the airport and was met by fire crews.

It's believed the plane sustained a hydraulic failure. It left the airport at around 2.20pm but, according to a flight radar, the plane, an Airbus A321-251NX, returned by 4.24pm.

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.

"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."