An ambulance aircraft carrying two patients suspected of having hantavirus made an emergency landing at Gran Canaria Airport on Wednesday afternoon after experiencing a malfunction in its isolation bubble. This diversion occurred after Moroccan authorities denied the aircraft permission to enter their airspace for necessary repairs. Initially, reports indicated that the plane had to reroute to the island because Morocco refused to grant permission for a technical stop to refuel in Marrakech. This information was later confirmed by sources from both the Government Delegation and the Canary Islands Health Department.
This unexpected stop was officially certified later in the day, with the flight plan indicating a subsequent stop in Malaga before continuing to its final destination, Amsterdam. The authorization to land in this Spanish territory was granted under the strict condition that no passengers would board or disembark from the plane, ensuring that it remained a purely technical stop en route to the Netherlands. The aircraft had departed from Praia International Airport at 11:00 AM, originally planning to refuel in Marrakech around 4:00 PM to complete its journey to Holland, where it was scheduled to arrive at 5:00 PM local time. However, shortly before 4:00 PM, the flight was diverted to Gran Canaria, and despite plans to take off for the Dutch capital at 5:40 PM, data from the flight tracking service Flightradar 24 indicated that the aircraft remained on the ground in Gran Canaria as late as 6:15 PM (local time).
The patients were evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship, which is carrying 147 passengers. This incident has sparked significant tension between the Spanish Government and the Canary Islands administration: while the national government has agreed, at the request of the World Health Organization, to transfer the vessel to Tenerife, the autonomous community has strongly opposed this decision.
As reported by lavozdegalicia.es.
