NANTES, France — A Ryanair flight from Spain was forced to declare a fuel emergency and divert to Brest Bretagne Airport this evening following a disrupted approach into a temporarily blocked Nantes Atlantique Airport.
Chronology of a Diversion
Ryanair flight FR5448, operated by a Boeing 737-800 (registration EI-EBK), took off routinely from Sevilla, Spain (SVQ) at 17:25 CEST, bound for Nantes.
The flight proceeded normally toward its destination and was on its final approach to runway 21 in Nantes, tracking toward an expected arrival time of 19:10 CEST. However, the flight crew was forced to abort the approach due to a sudden runway blockage on the ground.
- The Go-Around: The pilots initiated a go-around, climbing back up to 7,000 feet to evaluate their options.
- Holding Patterns: Air Traffic Control coordinated a brief hold, with the aircraft descending and circling at 4,000 feet for several minutes as the situation in Nantes failed to clear.
- The Emergency Call: Facing dwindling fuel reserves after the unexpected extra flight time, the captain officially declared a fuel emergency.
- Diversion to Brest: The crew quickly initiated an emergency climb to 20,000 feet. Air traffic controllers gave priority vectoring directly toward Brest, located on the far western tip of the Brittany peninsula.
The aircraft landed safely on runway 25L in Brest exactly 2 hours and 40 minutes after its initial departure from Seville.
Nantes Gridlock Generates Network Delays
The disruption at Nantes Atlantique Airport has left air traffic control scrambling to manage incoming arrivals. Because of the blocked runway, all incoming flights scheduled to land in Nantes are actively being diverted to neighboring regional airports.
Airport Operational Notice: Local aviation authorities in Nantes indicate that the runway is expected to remain closed until at least 21:00 local time while teams clear the obstruction.
Passengers booked on inbound or outbound flights out of Nantes tonight are urged to check their flight status directly with their respective airlines, as regional schedules face severe knock-on delays.
UPDATE
Flight number IB1222, a Mitsubishi CRJ-1000 operated by Air Nostrum bound for Madrid that had just taken off, experienced an engine failure during full thrust, with one of its two engines has shut down likely due to debris from a tire that burst during takeoff.
The aircraft, which had just taken off from Nantes, had to loop back to land on the runway.
An inspection of the runway was completed around 10:30 PM, which caused a temporary suspension of flight operations for nearly 4 hours. Debris was found on the runway.
Traffic resumed at 11:00 PM local time. The curfew has been lifted for tonight.
