Austrian Airlines flight from Vienna to Manchester declares emergency

AN AUSTRIAN AIRLINES flight has declared a mid-air "squawk 7700" emergency while flying over Sheffield.

By Alice Scarsi, World News Reporter

Austrian Airlines flight declares emergency over Sheffield

The Austrian Airlines Embraer ERJ-195LR has declared a mid-air emergency over Sheffield, local paper Wrexham.com wrote on Twitter. The flight departed from Vienna 15 minutes after its scheduled departure at 1.15pm local time (12.15pm BST) and headed to Manchester. But the pilots issued a squawk 7700 after crossing the English Channel.  

An altitude graph for flight OS463 showed that, for the remainder of its route, the plane flew at a lower altitude than usual. 

This led social media users to think the flight was suffering a pressurization issue. 

One Twitter user who was observing the flight using a flight tracker wrote: "The altitude graph shows #OS463 flying much lower for the last leg of the flight.

"Presumably a pressurization issue?"  

austrian airlines emergency vienna to manchester flight latest manchester airport

An Austrian Airlines flight has declared mid-air emergency (Image: GETTY/FLIGHTRADAR 24)

austrian airlines emergency vienna to manchester flight latest manchester airport

The Austrian Airlines flight left Vienna with a 15-minute delay (Image: GETTY)

In another tweet the social media user added: "It appears to have descended to about 10,000ft for the remainder of its flight." 

Observers at Wrexham.com also noted the plane "turned north over Nantwich" leading them to think it was trying to go either to Liverpool or Manchester. 

They added on Twitter: "This plane is doing a very low (2700ft) loop to the east of Wrexham / Chester - still squawking emergency 7700." 

The flight eventually landed at Manchester at 2.51pm.  

austrian airlines emergency vienna to manchester flight latest manchester airport

The route followed by the flight (Image: FLIGHTRADAR 24)

On Twitter user believes the flight was "definitely given priority" to land by Manchester Airport's official. 

He wrote: "Was definitely given priority, as all the planes coming in behind have been stuck in the hold over Buxton by the look of it."  

By using the emergency code 7700 a flight crew alerts all air traffic control facilities in the area that the aircraft has an emergency situation. 

Most of the time, a squawk 7700 doesn't indicate a life-threatening urgency.  

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