Medical emergency: vacationers fly to Cologne around three corners
Medical emergency: vacationers fly to Cologne around three corners
Boeing 737 from Hurghada to Cologne Funky Funky above the Mediterranean
A Boeing 737 of the Czech airline Smartwings, which was supposed to carry out a flight from Hurghada in Egypt to Cologne/Bonn, had to stop early on Sunday, April 14, 2025 and land on a Greek island. The reason for the diversion was a medical emergency on board, as confirmed by Eurowings, which carried out the flight on behalf of smartwings.
The flight had reached the travel level of around 12,000 meters around 2 p.m. German time. A few time later, around 3:45 p.m., the machine initiated a descent, which was occupied by records of "Flightradar24". In this situation, the crew explained an air emergency and radioed the internationally valid emergency code 7700. This indicates that it was a serious incident, which, however, did not necessarily put the safety of passengers in danger.
After half an hour, the Boeing 737 landed safely at Heraklion Airport on the Greek island of Crete. While an air emergency can have different causes, the medical emergency was the main reason for the intermediate landing. It is important to note that an intermediate landing in such a case is not classified as an emergency landing, provided that the safety of the passengers remains preserved.
The situation for the passengers, however, made itself lengthy. After a break, the machine did not go directly to Cologne/Bonn, but made a stopover in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. In order not to exceed the maximum permitted service of the crew, this stopover was necessary. After changing the crew in Zagreb, the flight could finally be continued towards Cologne/Bonn.
After over eight hours of travel time, the Boeing 737 finally landed at Cologne/Bonn Airport at around 0:15 a.m. Originally, arrival was planned for around 6 p.m., which means that passengers had to accept extensive delays. There were 169 passengers and six crew members on board who received care throughout the Odyssey.
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