Passengers on loose in Spain after possible fake emergency landing of Morocco to Turkey plane

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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/palma-mallorca-air-arabia-emergency-landing-b1953016.html

Passengers on loose in Spain after possible fake emergency landing of Morocco to Turkey plane

12 passengers are in custody after the chaotic incident at Palma Mallorca airport

Alastair Jamieson

6 hours ago

 3 comments

Spanish authorities are investigating the unauthorised disembarkation of 21 passengers from a plane that made an emergency medical landing on the island of Mallorca.

The incident happened when an Air Arabia flight from Casablanca to Istanbul made an emergency landing to attend to an unwell passenger.

When it landed, 21 other passengers forced their way off the plane, prompting security officials to temporarily close the airport.

 

Those included nine who illegally left the plane, the person who was said to be sick, the person’s companion, and a person who was arrested for fighting with an official on the plane.

Police are still looking for 12 more on the loose.

Investigators are looking at the possibility that the passenger who provoked the emergency landing was not actually ill.

“All fronts (for the investigation) are open at this moment and there is no information that allow us to affirm that it is act of unauthorised immigration carried out in a plot,” Ms Calvo said.

 

“What is unprecedented is that a person feels sick and 21 people jump onto the airstrip and start running around, because that puts air traffic in jeopardy.”

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https://english.elpais.com/spain/2021-11-08/spanish-police-investigating-whether-facebook-was-used-to-recruit-organized-group-to-force-passenger-plane-to-land.html

The Air Arabia aircraft had made an emergency landing in Palma for medical reasons that investigators now suspect may have been deliberately triggered in order to force the plane to land in Spain rather than continue on its way to Istanbul.

 

The police have arrested 12 people so far, including the individual who required medical assistance, a traveling companion and a passenger who assaulted a Civil Guard officer inside the plane. The man who supposedly fell ill was arrested in Spain in 2020 for criminal damage and contempt of court. Another 12 people out of a total of 150 passengers have gone missing, most of them Moroccan nationals except for one Palestinian. Several arrests were made in Sa Cabana, located 13 kilometers from the airport. Some people were found in a disoriented state near the facility, while others were hiding from the police.

Facebook post

Investigators are trying to determine whether the missing passengers made an improvised bid to enter Spain illegally following the unexpected situation, or whether the whole thing was planned.

The police are probing a social media post made on Facebook on July 17 requesting 40 volunteers to participate in a plan to simulate a medical emergency on a plane and force it to land in Spain. The message, posted by a Moroccan national, has since been deleted from a Facebook group called Brooklyn, but numerous users have shared screenshots of the text.

The aircraft landed at 7pm and an ambulance was rushed over. The crew entered the plane via stairs, which is when the group left the aircraft and made a run for the fence surrounding the airport. The rest of the passengers remained on board. 

The man who was supposedly sick was taken with a companion to Son Llàtzer hospital in the Balearic capital, where he was later discharged after no medical issues were detected. Officers from the National Police arrested him on offenses related to illegal immigration and the so-called “foreigners act.” 

Spain’s airport authority AENA decided to halt all activity due to the dangerous situation, in a decision that affected around 50 flights that were either cancelled or rerouted. Activity was resumed at around 11.30pm.

For now, the detainees remain in police custody in Palma and are under deportation orders, although judicial authorities could still charge them with violations of air safety rules, which would involve a transfer to a migrant holding center on Spanish territory.