Poor reporting or poor judgement?

[Piltdown Man]

What really happened? (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4963892/Plane-makes-emergency-landing-pilot-collapses.html). Again, petrified passengers (no screaming and thoughts of death though) but something does make sense here. 16 minutes into a flight out of Newcastle would place this aircraft just south of Finningley. If this article is to be believed, the nearest place to divert to was... Sofia? Words fail me.

[KelvinD]

Pathetic, isn't it? And the English used by the so-called journalist is even worse!

[wiggy]

Don't worry folks, it looks like the Mail's aviation correspondent has woken up and has decided to help out in the comments section...
Comment:
..
How come it flew to Sofia? If it was only 10mins into the flight then I think there are alot of other airports to fly past to reach Sofia....at least a couple of hours away!! Story doesn¿t make any sense!!!


Comment in reply:

The airports may not have been big enough to land a plane of this size, or have enough fuel if it was required.



This is if course the "go to" newspaper" for many people in the U.K......

[HundredPercentPlease]

One of the comments:

After reading this article and a few ridiculous comments I feel the need to correct some points. I was in-fact a passenger on this very flight, the pilot did take ill but this was not 16 mins into the flight, it was over 2 hours into the flight, we went from 35,000 feet to a quick and safe landing in Sofia, Bulgaria. The landing was made quick and safely by the other pilot with assistance from his crew. There was no panic, no drama whatsoever! The landing was to gain medical help for the pilot and never ever was there any other reason, this was NOT an emergency, brace landing. Credit to the Thomson crew on our flight, as with the other pilot they arranged all the hotels and taxis for all the passengers until they were able to obtain another pilot. We are now all safely in Cyprus. The pilot I hear is now out of hospital and we wish him well. This was an unavoidable situation, passenger safety was never at risk. Thank you to Thomsons for being so professional throughout!

[Doors to Automatic]

The airports may not have been big enough to land a plane of this size, or have enough fuel if it was required.

LHR with it's 12,000ft runways and pipeline direct to Fawley might have struggled, I will concede!

[OldLurker]

Poor reporting, of course – what do you expect from the Daily Mail? If I may say so, with the utmost respect, it's hardly worth starting a thread on the basis of a DM story without looking for other sources to back it up. Aviation Herald, while not always totally reliable, is surely likely to be more accurate than the DM:
Incident: Thomson B738 near Sofia on Oct 8th 2017, medical emergency possibly involving pilot (http://www.avherald.com/h?article=4af7b386)

[Hotel Tango]

Thank you HPP for your factual report. It didn't surprise me that the facts were a long way from the typical DM rubbish. But I guess, sadly, that it sells newspapers!