Fleeing passengers arrested after emergency landing in Mallorca

Twelve passengers have been arrested on the Spanish island of Mallorca who fled their plane after an emergency landing. Twelve others are still wanted.

An aircraft of the Moroccan airline Air Arabia Maroc had taken off from Casablanca last night for a flight to Istanbul in Turkey. Because a passenger was said to have become ill, an emergency landing was made at the airport of Mallorca in the Mediterranean Sea.

As soon as the doors were opened after the emergency landing, a group of more than twenty passengers took off. Among them was also the ‘sick person’, for whom the emergency landing had been made. Because the passengers walked on the runway, the airport had to close. Flights were diverted to other airports for a few hours.

Orchestrated or spontaneous?

The Spanish police managed to track down twelve passengers. They were arrested. Among them was the ‘sick person’, who was taken to a hospital, but nothing was found to be wrong.

Police do not yet know why the passengers fled after landing. It is also not clear whether it was an orchestrated action or whether it happened spontaneously.

Some Spanish media reports that it was an attempt to enter the country illegally, but that has not been confirmed. None of the fleeing passengers has applied for asylum.

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