Corendon flight from Corfu escorted by Eurofighters after squawk alert, lands safely in Nuremberg

A Corendon Airlines Europe flight from Corfu triggered an emergency alert on approach to Nuremberg on Tuesday. Police closed the airport, and two German Air Force Eurofighters escorted the aircraft through German airspace.

The transponder of flight XR456 signalled a possible in-flight emergency during its approach. The Boeing 737-800, registration 9H-CXD, landed safely at Nuremberg at 12:16 local time, according to Flightradar24. Passengers were later allowed to leave the aircraft, police said on X.

Two Eurofighters from Tactical Air Force Wing 74 based at Neuburg an der Donau had accompanied the jet. The airport and German air traffic control DFS confirmed this. Shortly after 13:00 police gave the all-clear, saying checks on the ground had found no danger. What caused the emergency remains unclear.

The closure disrupted the airport's schedule. Several arriving flights were diverted to Frankfurt, Memmingen, Stuttgart and Munich. Wizz Air Malta cancelled flight W43369 from Cluj-Napoca and KLM cancelled KL1843 from Amsterdam. Corendon flights from Palma de Mallorca and Ryanair services from Girona and Alicante were arriving late. The airport stayed shut, which was expected to cause further changes.

It was the second disruption in less than a day. In the night before Tuesday, between 02:00 and 04:00, three pilots independently reported an object that may have been a drone during take-off or landing. The border police inspectorate at Nuremberg airport, together with the airport and German air traffic control, began a search that also involved a police helicopter.