'Lack of Dublin hotel rooms' forces flight back to Germany after medical emergency

Post date: Jun 7, 2016 7:32:33 AM

A female patient on her way to Atlanta is understood to have been taken to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.

A LUFTHANSA FLIGHT carrying 265 passengers from Frankfurt to Atlanta was forced to divert to Dublin earlier this afternoon, after a medical emergency on board.

A spokesperson for the German airline told TheJournal.ie that the medical emergency necessitated a 1.09pm landing in Dublin Airport, after which the female patient was treated by emergency services personnel.

It is understood the woman was taken to Beaumont Hospital, but her current medical condition is not known.

According to a flight chart on the website FlightAware.com, the diversion appears to have taken place over the Atlantic ocean, about 240 km (150 miles) off the south-west coast of Ireland.

The Lufthansa spokesperson said that after landing in Dublin, flight preparations, including refuelling, had to be restarted.

However, due to legal limitations on staff duty time, the Airbus A343 could not take off again from Dublin to Atlanta today.

The airline made an attempt to find hotel accommodation for passengers and the crew, but according to the spokesperson, Bank Holiday Monday bookings meant there were not enough hotel rooms available to accommodate everyone.

For this reason, Flight LH 444 was forced to return from Dublin to Frankfurt later this afternoon. It arrived back in Germany at around 5.30pm Irish time.

Lufthansa flight LH 444 on its return journey from Dublin to Frankfurt this afternoon.

Flight crew and passengers will now be accommodated by the airline in hotels in Frankfurt, and the flight to Atlanta will take place tomorrow.