In the last few hours, a Jet2 flight from Leeds to Lanzarote made an emergency landing at Manchester due to a lightning strike.
Information has been released pertinent to the incident at hand.
Below is what we know on this so far…
Jet2 Flight LS219 – Leeds to Lanzarote…
Jet2 flight LS219, which made the emergency landing at Manchester, is a routine scheduled flight between Leeds & Lanzarote.
Furthermore, the aircraft involved was G-DRTD.
As per data from Planespotters.net, G-DRTD is a 20.1 year old Boeing 737-800 that first started life with Air China as B-5169 back in May 2006.
In October 2014, it was delivered to Transaero in Russia, before being handed over to Jet2 in May 2018.
Of the 737-800 variant, Jet2 has 94 of them in their fleet, of which all of them are in active service, and have an average fleet age of 16.3 years.
As well as the 737-800 variant, the airline has the following other aircraft in their fleet:
- 32 Airbus A321s.
- 7 Boeing 737-300s.
In total, the carrier has 135 aircraft in their fleet, of which 134 are in active service, and one is parked, with an average fleet age of 13.8 years.
Jet2 flight LS219, which made the emergency landing at Manchester, departed from Leeds at 1548 local time, and initially climbed out towards Lanzarote.
It is unclear currently at what moment the aircraft was struck by lightning, but over the Liverpool area, the aircraft made a series of manoeuvres and descent periods, whilst squawking the 7700 emergency squawk code.
From there, the aircraft got set up for a rare approach onto Runway 23L, rather than 23R.
The aircraft landed without further incident following the emergency call.
Aftermath Following Emergency Landing at Manchester…
After arrival into Manchester for it’s emergency landing, Jet2 flight LS219 Leeds-Lanzarote was inspected by fire crews before being allowed to u-turn and backtrack Runway 23L.
From there, the passengers were taken back to stand and deplaned.
At the time of publication, G-DRTD remains on the ground at the UK airport.
It is also unclear what the extent of the damage looks like following the lighting strike, but clearly it was serious enough to force an emergency landing.
As soon as we have more information pertinent to the incident at hand, we will update you accordingly.
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