TUI flight BY1480 declared an emergency yesterday (Thursday) on its way to the Canary Islands due to fuel concerns after severe headwinds. This was then made worse as the plane couldn’t land in Gran Canaria, nor could several others, because of severe cross winds, so was diverted to Tenerife already low on fuel and given priority to land.
However, Air Traffic Controllers explained that although the pilot of the plane, that had travelled from Glasgow, had declared an emergency, it doesn’t mean that the plane is running out of fuel, it means that it would have to switch to reserves to complete its journey.
They continued by saying that: "if the crew anticipates that they will land with less fuel than that legal reserve, they must declare an emergency, and air traffic controllers must clear the approach and give them priority to land, which is what happened in this case."
Thursday proved to be a challenging day at Canary Islands airports due to the storm affecting the archipelago, resulting in numerous delays for safety reasons. The adverse weather conditions prompted the diversions and emergency declarations.
Fortunately, all landed and took off safely with no major incidents or injuries.
