EGCC Emergency 18:35 21/12

[EGCC Rwy 24]

Arriving traffic to the holds, departures waiting on the ground, due to inbound emergency. Brilliant timing for it in the middle of a runway change too.

As quickly as it started, it all just went away again.

So, what was it all about?

[EGCC]

Possibly EZY? Noticed a Easyjet flight appeared on MAN arrivals as 18:41 Luton Diverted.

[fusible plug]

On 135.57 at about that time when the EZY asked for immediate descent, and declared MAYDAY. Crew were on O2 and comms hard to hear. Mentionned divert to Manchester or Leeds. Thats all we heard.

[EGCC Rwy 24]

Chiglet? Niteflite? Any knowledge ??

[EGCC]

Appears the EZY flight diverted to Liverpool:

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"MORE than 100 passengers were left at Liverpool John Lennon Airport for nearly four hours last night after their plane had to make an emergency landing.

The drama began shortly before 7pm when the easyJet 107 flight from Luton to Glasgow made the unscheduled landing.

A full emergency operation swung into action, which included closing off all main roads around the airport in Speke and paramedics being put on alert.

The 133 passengers were taken off the Boeing 737 and waited in the departure lounge until a replacement aircraft could be supplied by easyJet from Luton. There were no injuries and nobody required medical treatment.

Toby Nicol, spokesman for easyJet, said: "The cockpit indicators showed there was a slow decompression of air within the cabin and the decision was taken to land the plane on the runway as soon as we could.

"The oxygen masks were not deployed and the plane could have gone on to Glasgow, but landed in Liverpool for safety reasons.

"Such problems are rare enough to be taken seriously. The aircraft is now being looked at by the engineers and it won't be flying until they find the problem and it has been rectified."

The easyJet flight left Luton at 5.55pm and was due to arrive in Glasgow at 7.15pm. It landed in Liverpool at 6.53pm and the replacement aircraft left for Glasgow at 10.40pm.

Liverpool John Lennon Airport spokesman Robin Tudor said: "It was decided to bring the aircraft into Liverpool for its own safety.

"It was parked up on the main apron. There were no injuries and no need for paramedics.

"There is a clear set of procedures whenever there is a full emergency. A road block is put in place on the approach roads to the airport to allow emergency staff access.

"Such incidents are always taken extremely seriously. No other flights were affected as the runway was kept clear."

Merseyside Fire Brigade were put on red alert after receiving a full were, gency call from Air Traffic Control. Four fire engines, a special rescue unit, a hose layer, a hydraulic bonus form and a block foam unit - a powerful unit used to fight electrical fires - were all rushed to the scene from stations across the city.

In the event, the engines were not needed and returned to their stations.

The airport employs its own team of firefighters for such emergencies."

(www.icliverpool.co.uk)

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[j17]

EGCC RWY 24

The answer to your question.We were changing from rwy06 to 24 and about 5 aicraft were either in the hold approaching the hold or just leaving the hold, while we finished off the 06 traffic.As this was going on we were told that the above mentioned Easyjet was diverting to Manch,and to facilatate his rapid arrival on the scence a couple of aircraft had to be broken of the approach. Good game aint it.
The Easyjet then decides to go to liverpool and things returned to normal.

All in a days work!!

[EGCC Rwy 24]

Many thanks for all the responses.

j17 - you sound like a man who was in the thick of it! Thanks for taking the time to answer. The decision to go to Liverpool explains why the problem just seemed to go away.

I can't help wondering whether EGCC had alerted the local police and fire services before the EZY decided to go to Liverpool after all. If so, I wonder whether EZY get to pay for the response from the Manchester Police and Fire services ---- just thinking of my Council Tax! :-)

Cheers again.