A TUI holiday jet bound for the Greek island of Corfu made a 325-mile detour from Norwich to Belfast - to replace a crew member for another flight. The surprising stopover on Friday was the second in the week following a similar occurrence three days previously when an aircraft heading to Palma de Mallorca also diverted to Northern Ireland.
The Corfu flight was scheduled to depart from Norwich airport at 6am on Friday with an estimated time of arrival of 11am at its holiday island destination. But instead it headed for Belfast International in Northern Ireland, where it landed an hour later. The aircraft remained on the ground in Belfast for 33 minutes before finally departing for Corfu, arriving two and a half hours later than scheduled.
This had a knock-on effect for other passengers who were delayed departing from Corfu. The plane should have been used for a 2.10pm for Dalaman in Turkey after returning to Norwich. The aircraft eventually arrived three hours behind schedule and stayed on the ground in Turkey for an hour before departing shortly after midnight, landing in Norwich at 1.52 am the following day, reports SimpleFlying.
