UK private jet deportation flight cancelled after man swallows vape battery

A Home Office private deportation flight for one man had to be cancelled on Thursday morning after he was able to swallow a lithium vape battery shortly before being taken to the plane.Officials are now investigating the circumstances around the incident. The man, an Egyptian foreign national offender with a history of being disruptive during removal attempts, was due to take a flight from the UK via Albania to Egypt.He was due to fly to Albania with other deportees and then fly on to Egypt from there on a private flight. He was held in segregated detention for several days before the planned flight, but during that time was given a vape. He swallowed the lithium battery and was taken to hospital where he was successfully treated and returned to detention.A spokesperson for Mitie, the Home Office contractor that manages overseas deportations, said: “This incident is currently being investigated. At this point, there is no evidence to suggest any wrongdoing or breach of procedure by our colleagues. Our priority remains the safety and wellbeing of those in our care.”The Home Office charters private planes to deport people from the UK, most regularly to Albania but also to other European and long-haul destinations such as Nigeria and Ghana. A private plane was chartered to fly the first cohort of people to Rwanda in June 2022 but it never left the runway following legal challenges.In Thursday’s case the Home Office chartered a private plane to do a regular deportation flight to Albania. Unusually they bolted on to the booking an extra journey to Egypt for the man who would have had the plane to himself from Albania to Egypt, alongside guards and flight crew.It is not known what the cost of the cancelled flight from Albania to Egypt will be, but the cost of chartering private planes for Home Office deportation purposes can run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.The use of private flights by the Home Office where they charter a plane for just one person are extremely rare and tend to be used for disruptive individuals the Home Office is particularly keen to remove from the UK.Mitie sources said the company adheres to robust health and safety policies and procedures to protect both colleagues and the individuals in their care.A Home Office spokesperson said: “Disruptive behaviour will not succeed, and we will be continuing with deportation action as soon as it is possible to do so.”Home Office sources said they were supporting Mitie’s investigation into the incident.Mitie has had previous problems. In one incident a man sitting on a plane waiting to be deported by Mitie escorts escaped on to the runway at Heathrow. In another, senior staff at Manston, the former RAF base now used as a detention centre for processing asylum seekers who arrive by small boats, were investigated and later sacked. Mitie currently has a contract to manage Manston for the Home Office, along with a range of other government contracts including overseas deportations, some immigration detention centre contracts and some Ministry of Justice contracts.