Ryanair flight makes emergency landing at East Midlands Airport due to 'incapacitated pilot' onboard

Aircraft  Boeing 737-800 grounded by the pandemic virus covid-19
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A Ryanair flight between Tenerife and East Midlands Airport made an emergency landing on Thursday after one of its pilots fell seriously ill.

Ryanair flight FR3153 was given priority to land at its destination and came to a stop on the runway after reports that one of the pilots onboard had become "incapacitated".

Crews declared an emergency some time before landing while flying over the English Channel.

Paramedics boarded the Boeing 737-8 aircraft once it had come to a stop on the runway to administer aid to a member of the crew. Other inbound flights were diverted to Manchester Airport.

Earlier in the day, an autopilot problem was responsible for the emergency landing of another Ryanair flight, this time at London Stansted.

Flight FR-212 from London to Dublin was climbing through a height of 31,000 feet when the issue was discovered. Although the flight was half-way to its destination, the aircraft landed back at Stansted an hour after it departed.