Airport
Passenger faked going into labour to force plane’s emergency landing.
According to the Spanish government, a pregnant woman faked to be in labour in order to force a plane to land in Spain, where more than two dozen migrants tried to flee.
The commercial aircraft, which was travelling from Morocco to Turkey, made an emergency landing at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport, where 28 passengers—police think they were migrants attempting to enter Spain illegally—attempted to escape by running across the tarmac.
Police apprehended 14 of them, including the pregnant woman who was claimed pretended to be in labour aboard the plane. Five of those detained were quickly re-boarded the Pegasus Airlines flight, while the remaining eight would be deported to Morocco. According to police, the 14 other passengers were able to escape from the plane.
The woman, who was believed to be in labour, was arrested on suspicion of causing a public disturbance after hospital staff discovered that, despite being pregnant, she was not in labour. A total of 228 passengers were scheduled to fly from Casablanca to Istanbul.
It was the second such incident in less than a year, following a flight from Morocco to Turkey in which a passenger pretended to be ill in order to compel an emergency landing in Spain, with hundreds of passengers abandoning the plane.
