On Wednesday evening, Malta’s Lucca International Airport witnessed an emergency landing of a Turkish Airlines plane, as a number of Moroccan passengers fled after the unplanned landing.
The landing occurred after the captain requested permission to land after observing that a Moroccan traveler had suffered a “sudden health illness.”
According to data from the “Flyer Radar 24” website, Turkish Airlines flight No. “TK619” heading to Marrakesh took off from Istanbul at 8:56 am UTC.
After two hours of flying, the flight was diverted to Malta, where it landed at 11:02 a.m. UTC; The air vehicle is a “Boeing 737 MAX 8”, registered under the symbol “TC-LCI”.
The escape occurred while the plane was on the runway, which required rapid security intervention. The police received the notification and immediately began a comprehensive search operation with the assistance of the Maltese Defense Forces in the vicinity of the airport and neighboring areas.
As for the Moroccan traveler, whose health condition was the reason for the emergency landing, he is still under police guard at Mater Dei Hospital, while the authorities continue their search for the passengers who fled after landing.
This incident activates safety protocols at Malta Airport, which necessitated coordinated action by the police and competent authorities to search for the fleeing passengers. At the same time, the police continue to investigate the circumstances that led to this unauthorized escape.
Similar incidents
In March 2024, seventeen Moroccan passengers attempted to escape from Fiumicino Airport in Rome after an emergency landing of a flight coming from Istanbul to Tangier.
-The accident was caused by a heart attack suffered by one of the passengers. After landing, Italian security forces intercepted the passengers, searched them and verified their identity before allowing the plane to continue its journey to Tangier.
This incident is similar to previous cases in which Moroccan travelers attempted to flee after an emergency landing at European airports. In July 2022, twenty-eight Moroccan passengers attempted to escape after an emergency landing in Barcelona, while some of them succeeded in escaping in a similar incident that occurred in November 2021 at Palma de Mallorca Airport.
December 2022 also witnessed another incident at Barcelona International Airport, where a Pegasus Airlines plane from Casablanca to Istanbul requested an emergency landing after a female passenger claimed that she was in labor.
During this incident, twenty-seven passengers attempted to illegally exit the plane. Thirteen of them were captured, while fourteen managed to escape and were never found.
These repeated incidents prompted the strengthening of security measures at European airports that witness emergency landings.
Security services remain on high alert during medical transfers, especially on flights linking North Africa to Turkey
Related News :