Birmingham Airport delays continue after emergency landing closure
Is Birmingham Airport open and are there delays?
In a notice on its website, Birmingham Airport said it was now "operating to its normal schedule" but warned that passengers might face some residual delays.The online departures list on Thursday morning showed several flights leaving later than scheduled.The 05:55 BST Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, for example, departed at 09:57, while the 06:30 TUI service to Kefalonia was estimated to take off at about 12:30.Other flights have experienced shorter delays, ranging from about 35 minutes to a couple of hours.
What happened and was anyone injured?
According to aircraft charter and management company, Woodgate Aviation, one of its Beechcraft fixed-wing planes developed landing gear problems on its journey to Belfast after taking off from Birmingham at 13:11.The aircraft returned to Birmingham, landing at 13:58."The aircraft returned to Birmingham and made an emergency landing and the main undercarriage collapsed on touch down," the company said.It confirmed two crew members and one passenger were on board but were not injured.West Midlands Police, West Midlands Fire Service and Birmingham Airport Police were among the agencies at the scene.
Birmingham Airport said its teams worked as quickly as possible to move the aircraft in line with "strict protocols".A spokesperson said the protocols had to be followed to "ensure a safe reopening of the runway following a prolonged closure".Woodgate said it would co-operate fully with the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), which confirmed it was looking into the incident.An AAIB statement said a multi-disciplinary team of inspectors was deployed to the site.
How did the incident affect passengers?
With the closure lasting for more than six hours, many passengers suffered significant delays or saw their flights diverted to other airports.At least 10 flights due to depart from the airport were cancelled, while others were delayed by more than five hours.Twenty which were due to land at Birmingham were diverted to other airports.Some passengers told the BBC that their flights were cancelled "moments before boarding" on Wednesday afternoon.Birmingham Airport said it understood the frustration and apologised for the disruption.
Faye, who was travelling with her partner and four children, said they found out about the incident on Facebook.They had been due to fly to Antalya in Turkey with Jet2 at 14:55. While waiting at the airport, the family was given £10 per person by the airline for food and drinks.She subsequently received a text message saying the holiday had been cancelled and there would be a full refund in four to five days.She and her family were waiting to collect their baggage, along with about 400 other people, her children "sobbing and crying"."We are stuck here waiting for our baggage and it's boiling hot... and now our kids aren't going to have a holiday," she said at the time.
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