Agents of the National Police and the Civil Guard detained three of the nine people who remained missing after fleeing from a plane that landed at Palma airport due to an emergency this Wednesday around eight in the morning in the Mallorcan municipality of Sencelles. doctor on the afternoon of Friday, November 5. The arrest has been carried out by agents of both bodies in a farm located in this municipality in the interior of the island. Along with the three fugitives, two other Moroccan nationals suspected of harboring the fugitives have been arrested.

The three escapees are 26, 33 and 35 years old and are accused of two crimes of sedition, coercion and a violation of the Aliens Law. The other two 37-year-old detainees are charged with an alleged crime of favoring illegal immigration, as investigators suspect that they have been able to help the fugitives hide. The authorities continue with the search for the six people who remain unaccounted for and of whom, at least two, embarked on a ferry to Barcelona on 6 November.

In parallel, the investigation of what happened on the plane continues in the Court of Instruction Number 6 of Palma, where this Tuesday a statement was taken from two doctors who treated the person who claimed to suffer an illness on the flight, a fact that forced emergency landing. Judicial sources confirm that the doctors ratified before the judge what they already stated in their report and assured that when the patient arrived at the Son Llàtzer hospital, he did not show signs of illness, so he was discharged when the review was completed. The statement of two airport coordinators who were also cited as witnesses was postponed to December 1 due to electrical problems, derived from the rains, which affected the court.

Currently, 16 people remain in prison accused of alleged crimes of sedition, coercion and favoring illegal immigration. They are part of the group of 23 individuals who ran off the Air Arabia plane that made an emergency landing at Son Sant Joan airport. The aircraft bound for Istanbul and coming from Casablanca was forced to land in Palma because a doctor on board confirmed that one of the passengers was suffering from a diabetic coma and needed immediate help. The passenger and a companion were transferred in an ambulance while a riot inside the plane was used by 23 travelers to flee through the runways.

The Civil Guard began a search in the restricted area of ​​the airport while the National Police beat the surroundings. Throughout the night, 11 people were arrested, including the companion of the alleged patient who had fled the hospital. These 11 people and the alleged patient were brought to justice two days later and were sent to provisional prison without bail for alleged crimes of sedition, coercion and favoring irregular immigration. Four other people were arrested on November 17 in a square in the town of Sa Pobla. The four entered prison after going to court.