EasyJet flight diverted to Turkey then Athens before landing in Paphos

An easyJet aircraft carrying 184 passengers from Gatwick to Larnaca encountered difficulties with Turkish authorities on Friday night when it asked to make a forced landing at a Turkish airport after coming across bad weather over Paphos and was forced to divert its course, it was announced on Saturday.

The aircraft managed to first land for a few minutes at the airport of Dalaman in Turkey, and then took off for Athens, from where it departed for Paphos after which passengers were transferred to Larnaca by bus.

According to media reports, the aircraft was not given permission by Turkish Authorities to fly directly from Dalaman to Cyprus, and that is why it had to fly to Athens and from there to the island. As Turkey does not recognise Cyprus, it does not allow direct flights to Cyprus from its airports.

Sigmalive quoted passengers as saying that the aircraft was not granted permission to land at the Turkish airport, as “an issue was raised as to the religious and political beliefs of the passengers”.

Spokesman of Hermes airports Adamos Aspris told the Cyprus News Agency that the aircraft had to divert to a Turkish airport due to the bad weather conditions it encountered while flying over Paphos, which prevented it from remaining on course and land at Larnaca airport.

“Following a short stay at the Turkish airport Dalaman, the aircraft departed for Eleftherios Venizelos airport in Athens, from where after a short stop, it departed for Cyprus and more specifically to Paphos airport, as weather conditions had improved,” Aspris said.

He added that the airplane landed in Paphos at around 4.30am.

Aspris said that as the aircraft landed in Paphos instead of Larnaca, it would depart from the same airport on Saturday evening and that arrangements have been made for the transfer of passengers to Paphos.

He refrained from making any comments as to the difficulties the aircraft faced in landing in Turkey.

Former Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou Markoulli tweeted that the incident should be reported to the United Nations, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

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