Jet2 flight in mid-air emergency as it diverts after taking off from UK airport

A Jet2 flight has been forced to divert moments after leaving a UK airport. The flight bound for Rome, Italy, took off from Glasgow Airport this morning but quickly issued a 7700 squawk alert which means there was an onboard emergency.

Around one hour and 30 minutes into flight LS135, which departed Glasgow at 7:07am, pilots declared the emergency. The Boeing 737-800 then made a U-turn over Paris and headed back to the UK, this time to London Gatwick.

It was being reported on social media that the issue was a fuel leak, with insider account Flight Emergency posting on Twitter/X: Jet2 flight LS135 has just diverted to London Stansted under emergency conditions due to a fuel leak."

The Daily Star has reached out to the Jet2 to find out what has happened, however the experts at Flightradar24 confirmed that the 7700 code could mean.

They said: "An aircraft may even be directly asked to squawk 7700 after speaking to ATC verbally so that they can recognise them and give them priority over others.

"Squawking 7700 gives the pilot the responsibility to do essentially anything to ensure the safety of those onboard, regardless of the rules. Squawking 7700 also notifies all nearby ATC in the surrounding areas of the situation with the flight."

The plane landed at London Stansted shortly after 9am.