Guidance issued to airports after low fuel ‘mayday’ emergency

Friday, 14 Feb, 2025 0

A TUI plane carrying holidaymakers home from Cancun was forced to issue a mayday emergency due to running dangerously low on fuel.

The flight, with 300 people onboard, was scheduled to land at Manchester but had to be diverted to East Midlands Airport due to high winds in the Northwest.

It was then turned away from East Midlands Airport due to capacity constraints, so then went to nearby Birmingham Airport to land.

The problems didn’t end there.

The TUI flight had to abort its first attempt to land due to the weather, and was then stuck behind another plane given priority despite already issuing the mayday fuel warning.

It eventually landed safely with 1,250kg of fuel on board, which is much less than the safe minimum.

The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) issued a report on the incident.

It said: “Safety action has been taken to clarify the process for determining and communicating airport capacity for diversions, and for the prioritisation of aircraft that have declared an emergency.”

TravelMole Editorial Team

Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.

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