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Police officers at the airport on Mallorca: 23 passers-by had left after an unplanned stopover of their plane to Morocco
Photo: CATI CLADERA / EPA
Arrivals and departures at the airport in Mallorca were no longer possible for hours on Friday evening.
Now the police have arrested several people responsible for the chaos.
They had left a diverted passenger plane and were walking around on the tarmac.
The airport then temporarily ceased operations.
After the stopover because of a supposed medical emergency, 23 passengers ran onto the runway, as the airport administration announced.
The Air Arabia Maroc aircraft had made an emergency landing on Mallorca on its way from Casablanca to Istanbul.
But the passenger on board, who was allegedly suffering from diabetes shock, turned out to be very healthy in the hospital.
The authorities therefore assume that it was a planned action by a group of passengers who had intentionally brought about the emergency landing in order to come to Spain illegally.
The police arrested the supposedly ill person, according to "El País", on suspicion of "aiding and abetting illegal immigration".
The supposedly sick person is threatened with criminal proceedings
Son Sant Juan Airport had to stop all take-offs and landings for more than three hours on Friday evening because of the people on the tarmac.
Before flight operations could be resumed around 11.30 p.m., 27 approaching aircraft had to be diverted to other airports, to Ibiza, Barcelona or Valencia.
20 starts were delayed by hours.
At least two flights from Germany were also affected, one of which was rerouted to Valencia and the other to Ibiza, as the "Mallorca Zeitung" reported.
The migrants who got off the plane would now be treated like people who come to Spain on small boats at risk of death from North Africa across the Mediterranean, the police said.
These are registered and taken to an initial reception facility.
Then a procedure for repatriation to the country of origin is initiated, which can be stopped by an application for asylum or the granting of refugee protection.
Only the supposedly sick person would have to expect criminal proceedings on suspicion of favoring illegal entry and violation of the Aliens Act, it said.
The affected Moroccan plane flew on to Turkey early Saturday morning.
asc / AFP