A shocked passenger has told how it took paramedics over an hour to arrive after his flight from Edinburgh had to be diverted when a fellow flyer fell ill.
John Barrett, from Edinburgh, was aboard the Jet2 flight from Madeira to the capital on Monday night when the midair drama unfolded. The pilot declared an emergency and landed the plane at Bristol Airport so the poorly passenger could receive medical attention.
But John described the resulting delay as "bizarre and a bit scary" and told how everyone on board was "surprised that there wasn't really an ambulance waiting for the plane."
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Holiday firm Jet2 said that flight LS736 from Madeira to Edinburgh was diverted to Bristol Airport on Monday evening due to a customer requiring medical attention, reports Bristol Live. Flight tracking information shows that the plane landed at 11.21pm, but South Western Ambulance Service has confirmed that they arrived on the scene just after 12.30am.
Mr Barrett said: "It was really bizarre and a bit scary, actually. It was a really big delay, and it was just embarrassing. It's also surprising because they would have had at least half an hour's warning at the airport because the captain made an announcement to us 30 minutes beforehand.
"You would think that there would be some kind of special, quick way to get medical paramedics onto the plane because the plane landed really quickly, bombed down the runway and did a severe break.
"So the pilot was making sure that it was super fast, and the doors got open really quickly after a couple of minutes, but there were just a couple of firefighters. We were all talking about it on the plane, and everyone thought we should have just carried on to Edinburgh, and probably things would have been a lot quicker there."
Mr Barrett claims that the crew on the plane told passengers that the ambulance was late arriving and was then delayed getting through security. He said: "Everyone was surprised that there wasn't really an ambulance waiting for the plane, and then it just took so long, it took an hour."
He added that the crew on the flight and a former nurse all administered medical assistance, as did the fire staff on arrival at the airport. After the passenger was helped off the plane around 1am, it continued onto Edinburgh airport, arriving three hours late.
Asked about the delay, a spokesperson for the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) said: "Our ambulance clinicians strive every day to deliver their best care for patients, but our performance has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, partly due to handover delays at emergency departments.
"We are working with our partners in the NHS and social care to do all we can to improve the service that patients receive."
Bristol Live approached Bristol Airport about Mr Barrett's claims, but it declined to comment.
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