A Boeing 737 belonging to British low cost charter airline Jet2 was on its way from Glasgow, United Kingdom, to Tenerife, Spain, when it diverted to Manchester for quite a peculiar reason: it did not have enough water for coffee and tea.
On February 11, 2019, the aircraft, registered G-JZBO, was operating flight LS155 from Glasgow International Airport (GLA) to Tenerife South Airport (TFS), but one hour after takeoff, as it was flying over southern Ireland, it diverted to Manchester airport (MAN). Upon landing, the plane was met with emergency services.
Jet2 later explained the reason behind this diversion. “There was a technical issue with water on board. There wasn’t water for teas and coffees,” a spokeswoman of the British carrier told Scottish media Daily Record. The passengers were later transferred onto another flight to finish their journey.
While the situation might sound comical, passengers were not amused and expressed their frustration on Twitter.
Disgusted at this. Holiday ruined before it’s even started. Sons crying, thanks
— Colette Connolly (@cconnolly94) February 10, 2019
However, diversions can be even more frustrating. On January 21, 2019, a United Airlines flight from New York to Hong Kong diverted to Goose Bay airport, in Canada, due to a medical emergency. When came the time to continue the trip, the crew found themselves unable to close the door: the hydraulic system had frozen. The 250 passengers had to spend the night in the plane, as the airport was not fit to house this amount of people. A second plane came to their rescue, fourteen hours after they landed in Canada.