Two flights leaving Spain are forced to return after aircraft suffered ‘technical issues’

TWO Swedish-bound planes that had departed two Canary Islands airports had to make unscheduled returns due to technical issues.

The incidents happened within 24 hours last Friday and Saturday.

The planes both went into holding patterns to burn up fuel to reduce weight before safely landing back in the Canaries.

READ MORE:

• Jet2 flight from Spain to UK makes emergency landing after passenger in his 70s dies mid-flight

The first incident occurred on Friday afternoon when an a SAS flight left Fuerteventura for Stockholm.

The flight crew spotted a warning light for a pressurisation issue as the plane was climbing to its cruising altitude.

The captain requested a return to Fuerteventura but needed to burn off fuel, meaning the craft had to circle an area south of the airport for around 90 minutes.

A decision was then taken to land the SAS Airbus A320 at Tenerife South Airport, which it did without any problems.

The second incident was on Saturday morning and involved a Norwegian Airlines plane that had left Gran Canaria for Gothernburg.

As in the SAS flight, the captain reported a technical issue while climbing to cruising altitude.

It requested a return to Gran Canaria and went into a holding pattern to dump fuel to lighten its load on landing.

There were no problems in landing once the fuel load had been reduced.