In the evening of 3 October, a Transavia Boeing 737-700 (registered PH-BGH) operated flight HV5023 between Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and Malaga, Spain, but was forced to divert to Madrid because a passenger boarded the aircraft in Rotterdam without a valid boarding card. Upon landing, Spanish police disembarked the female passenger. This news was confirmed by Transavia and the Royal Dutch Marechaussee to the Dutch newspaper De Gelderland.
After landing in Madrid, the captain of the flight explained to passengers that the Russian woman pressed the emergency button at the security checkpoint in Rotterdam, which brought everything to a standstill, and consternation arose. Without being checked, she fled onto the tarmac and boarded the nearest aircraft, without a valid boarding card.
As soon as the Marechaussee discovered the breach, they immediately informed the captain of the flight, after which he decided to divert to Madrid, a spokesperson of Transavia explained.
The passenger was interrogated by the Spanish police, while the cabin crew performed an additional check for possible items that didn’t go through security at Rotterdam.
Later in the evening, the flight continued to Malaga, where the flight landed with a delay of over four hours.
Not only the flight to Malaga made an extra stop, flight HV6093 between Rotterdam and Faro, Portugal, made a diversion to Bordeaux, France, as – initially – it was believed that the stowaway passenger was on that flight. When it appeared that she was on another flight, the crew already started the approach towards Bordeaux.
Finally, the Boeing 737-700 (registered PH-BGI) landed in Faro with a delay of 1 hour and 20 minutes.
