Ryanair flight from Manchester makes emergency landing following reports of ‘fire on board’

A Ryanair flight from Manchester to Faro was forced to make an emergency landing last night following reports of a ‘fire on board’.

Flight FR4052 took off from Manchester Airport at 6:33pm yesterday, January 3rd, and was expected to land in Faro, Portugal, around three hours later at 9:30pm.

However, the aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing in Brest, Northern France, where flight tracking software claims it descended from 41,000ft to 7,000ft in just seven minutes. 

The Boeing 737 was met on the runway by several fire trucks, with passengers reportedly being escorted onto a shuttle bus by French police.

Thanks to France’s current Covid restrictions – which state that travellers arriving in France must self-isolate for forty-eight hours before taking a PCR test – there were concerns that the passengers would be forced to remain in France and isolate.

However, it was reported that travellers were informed by airport staff in Brest that another plane had been dispatched from Stansted Airport in London to continue their original journey to Faro.

This came after another flight from Birmingham to Dublin, operated by Irish airline Aer Lingus, was forced to make an emergency landing in Manchester last night. 

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The airline said the emergency landing came as a result of a ‘technical issue’, and that all customers had been provided with a hotel stay overnight before continuing their journey to Dublin this morning. 

A spokesperson said: “Aer Lingus flight EI277 Birmingham-Dublin diverted to Manchester due to a technical issue. All customers have disembarked and will continue their journey to Dublin tomorrow morning.

“Hotel accommodation has been provided. Aer Lingus apologises for any inconvenience caused.”