A plane carrying British holidaymakers from Tenerife to Birmingham needed to make an emergency landing after the pilot suffered a suspected heart attack mid-flight.
The Jet2 Flight was 30,000 ft within the air when the medical emergency took place and the plane was forced to land early in Portugal at 2.11am on Friday.
Witnesses said flight attendants ran down the aisle in tears, asking if there was a physician on board.
A passenger told The Sun on Sunday: ‘My partner and I were asleep once we were awoken by chaos.
‘Lights began flashing and hostesses who were visibly upset, in search of a physician.
‘Our two-year-old began crying like many other children onboard since the aircraft was dropping so quickly for an emergency landing.’
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Emergency services rushed onto the plane after it landed in Porto, where 220 passengers watched on as medics attended to the pilot.
The passengers waited in Francisco Sa Carneiro airport for 13 hours before being flown home on a special flight with a brand new cockpit crew.
Jet2 had flown a pilot out from Manchester to take customers back to the UK.
A passenger said: ‘We were stranded in Portugal for over 13 hours without accommodation. They wouldn’t allow us to off the plane itself for over an hour.
‘Then we were just left to wander around. There was nowhere to remain. They said accommodation was too expensive.’
A passenger continued: ‘The airline told us the pilot had suffered a heart attack within the cockpit. We now have full sympathy for him in fact.’
Jet2 told The Sun: ‘Flight LS1266 from Tenerife to Birmingham diverted to Porto on Thursday (twenty first May), because of one in all the pilots feeling unwell.
‘At no point was safety compromised, and customers subsequently continued their journey.
‘We would love to apologise to customers for this unexpected delay.’
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