{"id":1109899,"date":"2026-07-25T05:14:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T05:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1109899\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T05:14:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T05:14:31","slug":"ryanair-passengers-diverted-160-miles-to-birmingham-after-mid-flight-problem-with-wing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1109899\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryanair passengers diverted 160 miles to Birmingham after mid-flight ‘problem’ with wing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The plane landed and was immediately assessed by emergency crews<\/p>\n

Molly Seaman<\/strong> and Adam Care<\/strong> Live News Reporter<\/p>\n

09:41, 23 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

\"Crews<\/p>\n

Crews assessing the wing of the plane at Birmingham Airport(Image: Davina Gunn-Hawking)<\/p>\n

Ryanair <\/a>passengers heading to Devon instead found themselves in Birmingham after a “problem with the aircraft”. Their plane left Faro in Portugal yesterday evening (July 22) and was heading to Exeter Airport, but suddenly changed course.<\/p>\n

The Ryanair flight FR8030 was scheduled to land at 6.55pm but was diverted to Birmingham.<\/p>\n

Passenger Davina said the pilot “made an announcement we were landing in five minutes” before the plane ascended and circled a few times, DevonLive reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Davina continued: “Then an announcement was made that due to a problem with the aircraft, we needed a longer runway and we were being diverted to Birmingham.<\/p>\n

\"Davina<\/p>\n

Davina and her family on board the plane(Image: Davina Gunn-Hawking)<\/p>\n

“The pilot and cabin crew were very professional and helpful, but tensions were very high”.<\/p>\n

The cause of the diversion is not known, but a flight spotters group on social media suggest there was a squawked 7700 alert – a distress signal that communicates an emergency situation to air traffic controllers.<\/p>\n

Flight trackers show the plane flew over Exeter, circled, then continued north to Birmingham, where it landed.<\/p>\n

As the plane touched down, blue-light landing-precaution vehicles immediately followed.<\/p>\n

Pictures taken in Birmingham show crews on the runway inspecting the plane’s wing.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The view from the plane as it landed in Birmingham<\/p>\n

READ MORE: “There was no escape from it, it was honestly horrendous”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Firefighters under investigation for giving kids a ride on fire engine during open day<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

DevonLive understands that Ryanair organised coaches picked up passengers from Birmingham and took them to Exeter.<\/p>\n

In a statement to passengers, Ryanair said it was “forced to divert [the] flight to Birmingham” but did not confirm the cause of the diversion.<\/p>\n

Ryanair and Exeter Airport have been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

Ensure our latest headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate<\/a> or add us as Preferred Source.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The plane landed and was immediately assessed by emergency crews Molly Seaman and Adam Care Live News Reporter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1109900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,1339,16,15],"class_list":["post-1109899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-birmingham","tag-birmingham","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-ryanair","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116978913731852602","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1109899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1109900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1109899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1109899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1109899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}