An air ambulance transporting two suspected hantavirus patients from Cape Verde to the Netherlands is now expected to make an additional stop in Malaga after being forced to divert to Gran Canaria due to a failure in its onboard isolation chamber.
The patients were infected aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, which has been linked to a deadly outbreak of the Andes strain of hantavirus that has already killed three passengers.
Spain’s Government Delegation in the Canary Islands confirmed the aircraft initially diverted to Gran Canaria after suffering damage to the specialised isolation ‘bubble’ used to safely transport potentially infectious patients.
The medical plane had originally departed from Praia airport in Cape Verde at around 11am and was due to refuel in Marrakech before continuing to Amsterdam.
However, Moroccan authorities reportedly refused permission for the aircraft to land once informed of the technical issue involving the isolation system.
As a result, the plane was rerouted to Gran Canaria airport shortly before 4pm.
Spanish authorities said permission to land in the Canary Islands was granted on the strict condition that nobody boarded or disembarked from the aircraft during the stop, a requirement they say was fully respected.
Initially, officials described the diversion as a routine refuelling stop, but later clarified that the damaged medical containment unit was the main reason for the unscheduled landing.
By early evening, the aircraft was still on the ground in Gran Canaria despite earlier plans to depart for the Netherlands shortly after 5.40pm local time.
Flight tracking website Flightradar24 later showed the route had changed again, with the aircraft now scheduled to make an additional stop in Malaga before continuing north to the Netherlands.
Authorities in the Canary Islands have not yet officially confirmed the Malaga stopover.
The incident comes amid growing tensions between Spain’s central government and the Canary Islands administration over the handling of the MV Hondius outbreak.
Madrid agreed to a World Health Organisation request to allow the cruise ship to travel to Tenerife as part of an international evacuation and quarantine operation.
However, Canary Islands president Fernando Clavijo has strongly criticised the decision, claiming local authorities have not received sufficient health information or guarantees about public safety.
The MV Hondius currently has around 146 people onboard and remains at the centre of a major international health response involving Spain, the WHO and several European governments.
The outbreak has sparked concern because the Andes variant of hantavirus is the only known strain capable of limited human-to-human transmission through prolonged close contact in enclosed environments.
