Speaking to Lusa, a source from the Faro District Center for Civil Protection (CDOS) said that the alert was declared by the airport at around 12:40pm, for the emergency landing of an aircraft that reported a failure in one of the two engines.

The plane, with 148 people on board and which had taken off from Faro at 11:40 am, landed safely at 1:09 pm with no problems with passengers and crew, said the same source.

The aircraft, an Airbus A321, from the Canadian company Air Transat, had taken off at 11:40 am from Faro International Airport, bound for Toronto, Canada.

Red alert

In view of the red alert, the highest of the defined Emergency Plan, enacted by Gago Coutinho Airport, all Civil Protection agents in the Faro district assigned to the plan were mobilised, specifically all fire brigades in the region, police forces, and medical services.

The CDOS source explained, the Airport Emergency Plan encompasses three levels: the first, yellow, places all teams on pre-warning, a second, orange, on the readiness of all forces, and the third, red, where the teams immediately leave for the airport.

“That's what happened in this case, with the teams mobilising more than a hundred personnel being demobilised after the plane landed safely”.