The co-pilot’s illness triggered a ‘code red’ alert at Faro Airport, on Saturday afternoon, at around 5pm.
The aircraft had been travelling between Lanzarote (CI) and Birmingham (UK) when the captain decided to divert to Faro due to the first officer feeling unwell.
Emergency services were dispatched to attend the Boeing 737-8MG, which was carrying 194 passengers onboard and landed without incident about 30 minutes after the decision was made to divert.
A Faro emergency response official said: “It was a major operation. We were able to mobilise 34 emergency vehicles and 81 men, among them ambulances, firefighting vehicles and police.
“A traffic lane was freed up between the airport and the hospital and backup teams were called to go to the hospital”, it was added, explaining “the response is an automatic response to a code red alert.”
A Jet2 spokesman said the co-pilot was “okay”.
A replacement plane was reportedly sent to Faro to collect the passengers later that night.