I was idly perusing FR24 last night, as one does, when I noticed that EJU1638 from Orly to Nice had suddenly turned sharp right and was evidently diverting to Marseille. It was also squawking 7700 – FR24 turns the aircraft red and shows you the squawk when this happens.
Fair enough, there could be any number of reasons. Later the Easyjet flight status page said it had been diverted for “a passenger welfare issue”. For the airline pilots here, would you squawk 7700 (and presumably declare an emergency) for that? Given where they diverted, they saved max 10 minutes by doing the diversion.
I expected the flight to continue later to Nice, but I’ve been watching Flightaware and there don’t seem to have been any flights from LFML to LFMN. Yet the early morning EZY to Orly, EJU1631, seems to have left on time. And meanwhile, the Easyjet page said that passengers should “collect their luggage and follow directions from ground staff” – presumably they were being bussed the ~200km to Nice.
So I’m intrigued. Is the aircraft still on the ground at LFML? Was it really some kind of technical issue (smoke? suspected fire?) that caused the diversion and they just dressed it up to not worry the pax? How did they operate EJU1631 this morning? Nice is an EJU base but I don’t think they have spare aircraft lying around.
FR24 has an aircraft history feature, that will tell you where it has been for the last few days (and entertaining it often is), but you need the tail number. I can’t find a way to get that for a completed flight. Anyone have any ideas?
Not that this is important (except for the people who found themselves arriving at Nice in the small hours) but I’m curious.
would you squawk 7700 (and presumably declare an emergency) for that?
Nope.
“a passenger welfare issue?”
Why not declare a medical emergency?
Sounds to me like a passenger or passengers have got out of control and maybe the police at Marseille were better equipped to deal with it than those at Nice.
It didn’t depart till the next morning. I doubt the crew ran out of hours. I presume that it was a smoke/fumes event and thus the aircraft would be grounded till the next morning when it went to Lille. It looks they re-filed/delayed the flight x3 times before giving up.
when it went to Lille
Are you sure it went to Lille? Flightaware shows a flight EJU9044 from LFML to LFMN leaving at 0905. Must be a strange flight from a pilot pov, never got above FL120 and that not for very long. I haven’t managed to find the tail number though – do you have it?
Nice Matin has a report which says it was a medical emergency, but of course they only write what they’re told.
