An emergency situation arose on an easyJet flight nearing Manchester Airport. Passengers were en route from Amsterdam when the Airbus A320-200 crew issued a mid-air alert, leading to the aircraft circling in a holding pattern. The pilot of easyJet flight U22164 from Schiphol Airport altered the flight path into Manchester Airport, circling to the city’s north, as per flight trackers.
Approximately one hour after departure, the flight crew declared an emergency while preparing to descend into Manchester, as reported by Air Live. A standard emergency squawk code of 7700 was utilized to alert air traffic control, granting the aircraft priority landing and ensuring emergency services were ready on the ground.
The emergency code 7700 is a general designation that does not specify the onboard issue, serving as a catch-all for various emergencies excluding hijacking (7500) or radio failure (7600) scenarios. Subsequent to the emergency alert, the plane was directed onto the approach path and safely landed on Runway 05R at Manchester Airport without further incident.
Following a period of circling, the aircraft landed at 3:05 pm, 45 minutes beyond the scheduled arrival time of 2:20 pm. An easyJet spokesperson informed The Mirror that a priority landing was requested due to a technical problem. The airline statement mentioned that Flight EZY2164 from Amsterdam to Manchester sought a priority landing on July 15 due to a technical issue, with the aircraft landing normally and passengers disembarking safely.
Earlier this month, a significant number of UK flights encountered delays due to an issue at the UK’s air traffic control. Widespread disruption occurred across UK airspace on July 7 following an issue at the Met Office, which prevented the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) from receiving crucial weather information.
As a consequence, Ryanair experienced delays in 155 flights affecting nearly 30,000 passengers with up to three-hour delays, while EasyJet faced more significant impact with 253 delayed flights, constituting 13% of its planned departures for that day. A spokesperson for NATS explained that a technical issue at the Met Office resulted in the disruption, but the air traffic restrictions were subsequently lifted, with efforts ongoing to resolve the problem.
