An easyJet flight traveling from Cyprus to Scotland made an emergency diversion to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport on Tuesday evening following a severe in-flight medical emergency that required CPR to be actively performed on a passenger mid-flight.
Flight U23170, operated by an Airbus A320 registered as G-EZWL, departed Larnaca Airport on October 6 bound for Glasgow. Roughly four hours into the journey, while cruising at 38,000 feet over the North Sea, a passenger went into life-threatening distress, prompting responders onboard to immediately begin performing CPR in the cabin.
Recognizing the extreme urgency while active resuscitation was underway at 38,000 feet, the captain declared a general emergency by setting the transponder to squawk code 7700 and informed Air Traffic Control (ATC) that an immediate emergency landing was required.
Air traffic controllers gave the aircraft top priority and cleared a direct path down to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The flight crew executed a rapid descent, landing safely on Runway 06 just 22 minutes after broadcasting the distress call.
Upon touchdown, the jet taxied straight to Gate D60, where local medical teams boarded immediately to take over CPR and emergency medical care.
