Ryanair aircraft out of the blue turns round mid flight after pilot’s ‘attainable hijack’ message
The plane was forces to turn around dramatically and head for the airport it had departed from due to a passengers odd behaviour
The incident occurred on a Ryanair flight (stock)(Image: Getty Images)
A Ryanair flight heading for Dublin was forced to return to Porto following a peculiar incident involving a passenger who allegedly declared after take-off that she was being pursued by three individuals.
The 48-year-old woman is said to have passed a flight attendant some “sheets of paper” detailing her disturbing allegation and requested he deliver them to the pilot. The unnamed Brazilian was escorted from the Boeing 737 after it touched down at its departure airport and was questioned by local authorities.
Ryanair flight 7073 departed Porto Airport again just before 1.30am yesterday and arrived at the Irish capital two-and-a-half hours behind schedule at around 3.15am local time. Respected Portuguese daily Correio da Manha reported the woman boarded the aircraft again after being questioned by the authorities “without police verifying her allegations.”
Cabin crew were spooked (stock)(Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)
However, other Portuguese media which covered the story said the female passenger had compelled the plane to return to Porto after exhibiting “disorderly behaviour”, reported she was led out of the airport by officers.
And they alleged the pilot had to transmit a squawk code used to discretely signal unlawful interference such as a hijacking or a cockpit intrusion to air traffic control before its unplanned turn-around.
Former TAP pilot and aviation author Jose Correia Guedes seemed to confirm the reports late yesterday by posting on X, referencing Flight Level 120 which means 12,000 feet: “Last night, the Ryanair Boeing 737-8 MAX with registration EI-IJK took off from Porto bound for Dublin.”
Upon passing FL120, the captain entered code 7500 into the transponder, signalling an attempted hijacking or intrusion into the cockpit.
“The crew requested radar vectors to return to the airport and asked for the authorities to be notified.”
With the assistance of Air Traffic Control, the B737 landed without problems at Porto near midnight, and the PSP police took charge of the incident.
The passenger handed sheets of paper to staff (stock)(Image: Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)
“When code 7500 is entered into an aircraft’s transponder, an alarm is automatically triggered on the air traffic controllers’ panels.”
This is followed by a confirmation because sometimes the code is entered by mistake, after which notification is made to the authorities and emergency services.
“Then, air traffic control establishes a privileged communication with the crew and provides all possible support until the problem is resolved.”
So far, I haven’t been able to confirm whether there was an attempted hijacking or if it was just a misbehaving passenger who caused this incident.
“In either case, the aforementioned passenger now has a big problem to deal with.”
The PSP police force couldn’t be reached early this morning for comment.
Ryanair said in a statement: “This flight from Porto to Dublin returned to Porto shortly after take-off due to a false security report, which was quickly resolved before the flight continued to Dublin following a 2hr 33mins delay.”
The airline did not say whether the pilot had sent a squawk code used to discreetly signal unlawful interference such as a hijacking or a cockpit intrusion to air traffic control.
