A Wizz Air flight from Poland to London was forced to divert and evacuate more than 200 passengers, resulting in a nine hour delay.
Flight WUK1KM from Poznań–Ławica Henryk Wieniawski Airport to London Luton Airport on Sunday 20 July landed in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport following a “technical issue”.
More than 200 passengers were evacuated as emergency services, including ambulances, fire trucks and a medical helicopter, attended the scene, according to local media.
No casualties were reported and pilots were assessed as medically fit to fly.
The Airbus A321 departed Poland at 11.35am on Sunday, touching down in the Netherlands just 20 minutes later. It finally arrived at its final destination of London Luton at 9.12pm that evening, over nine hours later.
Wizz Air did not respond to requests from The Independent regarding the reason behind the incident, stating investigations were “ongoing”.
In a statement, they said: “We can confirm that flight WUK1KM from Poznan Airport to London Luton Airport was safely diverted to Amsterdam due to a technical issue.
“As a recovery plan, Wizz Air immediately sent an aircraft from London Luton Airport to bring the affected passengers to London Luton as soon as possible.
“The safety of our passengers and crew is of utmost priority. We are keeping all affected passengers promptly informed on developments and will be providing Wizz vouchers to all of them.”
The news comes several weeks after the Hungarian company reported a significant slump in annual profits, stating a fifth of its fleet had been grounded due to engine issues.
The budget carrier was forced to ground an average of 44 planes over the year because of issues with the engines, which are made by US aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney.
It confirmed in June that profits had fallen by 62 per cent to €167.5 million (£141 million).
Despite these challenges, it added that it flew a record 63.4 million passengers and remained optimistic about its capacity to serve more passengers than ever before.
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