The easyJet flight from Bodrum, Turkey, to Bristol Airport was forced to make an emergency landing in Zagreb, Croatia, after a passenger became ill
Olivier Vergnault and Shannon Brown
09:50, 14 Sep 2025
The ambulance waiting at Zagreb airport after the easyJet flight was diverted(Image: Bristol Live)
A holidaymaker has described the terrifying moment a Bristol Airport-bound flight had to make an emergency landing in another country after a fellow passenger became ill. It is understood that the passenger suffered a suspected heart attack, requiring urgent medical attention.
The incident took place on easyJet service EZY2854 / U22854 from Bodrum, Turkey, to Bristol Airport. It was forced to divert urgently to Zagreb Pleso airport when the elderly passenger appeared to stop breathing.
A fellow traveller recalled seeing an elderly woman in a wheelchair at the airport with her husband and a young boy. For the biggest stories in Wales first, sign up to our daily newsletter here
The passenger said their departure from Bodrum was momentarily delayed as two assistants were needed to help the elderly woman board the aircraft in her wheelchair, reports Somerset Live.
She described the panic that gripped the cabin when, during the flight, a young boy travelling with the elderly couple shouted that “she’s not breathing”.
The passenger said: “At the time we were boarding the plane I just thought it was an old lady doing her thing and in my mind she was normal.
“We all boarded with no issue and after some delay we took off at 9.05pm from Turkey local time. About an hour and 45 minutes into the flight this young boy turned his head and started shouting ‘she’s not breathing’.
“He ran down the aisle of the plane panicking everyone and ran to the back which is when the flight attendants understood that the old woman was not breathing.”
The holidaymaker recalled one of the cabin crew “spamming the assist button for attention” in a desperate bid to secure aid for the elderly passenger.
She continued: “The older couple were two rows in front of me. I saw it all. The flight attendants then dragged the woman into the aisle to start CPR.
“The flight attendants asked if anyone was a paramedic or something of sorts to make themselves known. Two guys came forward and were doing compressions for around 10 minutes.”
A another passenger described how the aircraft began to descend rapidly, “almost like it was falling out of the sky”.
“We were going down fast,” she noted.
“We landed after about 18 minutes of this going on. The woman was cold white. We landed very fast and everyone braced from how fast the landing was.”
She recounted that upon landing, emergency services were already on the tarmac, with paramedics swiftly boarding to attend to the elderly lady, while her relatives were escorted off the plane, adding: “We had landed in Zagreb in Croatia and were stuck there for two hours as they needed to find her luggage and the family members’ stuff.
“We were then taken back to Bristol after it all. It was about 1.40am when we landed back home.”
An easyJet spokesperson said that a passenger on the flight required “urgent medical attention”.
The spokesperson said: “The passenger was met by medical services on arrival and the flight continued to Bristol.
“The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is always easyJet’s highest priority.”
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