British tourist dies at passport control at Lanzarote Airport | World | News
The British holidaymaker had reportedly just arrived in Lanzarote when he collapsed at the airport (Image: Getty)
A British tourist has died at Lanzarote Airport shortly after arriving on a plane from the UK. The man is said to have collapsed in the approach to the passport control area less than half an hour after leaving the Jet2 plane he had reached the island on.
The alarm was raised just before 3pm local time on Thursday but there was nothing emergency responders could do to save the life of the unnamed Brit and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Well-placed sources said he had died of natural causes, with local reports pointing to him suffering a heart attack. They ruled out any obvious link to the long queues British holidaymakers travelling to the island regularly experience trying to get through passport control, although the tragedy has given rise to a new wave of complaints about the queue problems. It was not immediately clear this morning how old the tourist was and whether he was travelling alone or with family or friends.
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The holiday maker died not long after arriving at Lanzarote Airport from the UK (Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanzarote_Airport)
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Civil Guard sources confirmed he was British and said the incident wasn’t being treated as suspicious.
The plane he was on is understood to have landed at 2.26pm on Thursday and the alarm about the health emergency sounded 22 minutes later at 2.48pm.
He was in a shaded area in terminal one of the airport – officially named Cesar Manrique-Lanzarote Airport – which passengers are funnelled into just before they reach the passport control booths manned by police.
Local press in their descriptions of the area say travellers have «no access to toilets, no seats and have to endure temperatures which at times are close to being unbearable.»
One island-based online media outlet said overnight, describing the horror being felt by Lanzarote tourist industry chiefs following the British tourist’s death: «The worry in the sector is that a luxury destination has a third-world entrance.
The man was reported to have just left his Jet2 flight before he collapsed (Image: PA)
«Beyond Thursday’s tragic event, the tourism sector of Lanzarote is observing with growing concern what happens every day at passport controls.
«Sources from the sector agree on an alarming diagnosis: the queues are not only long, they are becoming a cause for despair.»
In December holidaymakers claimed an elderly British woman was wheeled onto an easyJet flight from Malaga to Gatwick when she was already dead. The plane was turned around before it left the runway and the flight was delayed by 12 hours.
One Brit on the aircraft, Tracy-Ann Kitching, raged on social media: «I saw her wheeled onto the plane, someone was holding her head when they went past me. An actual doctor confirmed she was already dead when they put her in her seat.»
EasyJet insisted at the time the concerned passengers were wrong, the passenger had a fit to fly certificate – and was alive when she boarded the plane.
A spokesman for the Civil Guard in Malaga said afterwards: «Officers were asked to go to the plane along with other emergency responders after an elderly British woman went into cardiac arrest on an aircraft at Malaga Airport. She was pronounced dead on the plane which had been due to leave Malaga for London just after 11am on December 18.»
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Thursdays are the day of the week with the most air traffic congestion in Lanzarote when a large number of flights arrive from the UK.
Late last year disgruntled Brits heading on holiday reported two hour delays at arrivals when they reached the island, where the new automated Entry/Exist IT system began to be introduced gradually last November for non-EU citizens.
Police unions said at the time they believed technical problems would worsen existing queue problems at the airport they blamed on the lack of officers employed to carry out passport checks.
A spokesman for the SUP National Police union warned travellers at the time they should get to the airport four hours before departing, especially on international flights, as he insisted tourists exiting Lanzarote as well as those arriving would face problems.
More than 700,000 passengers used Lanzarote Airport in the first month of this year.
