2 days ago
Private jet makes emergency landing at Bournemouth Airport
A PRIVATE jet was forced to make an emergency landing at Bournemouth Airport after suffering a technical fault.
The Citation jet, travelling from Palma in Mallorca, was met by a large emergency response when it arrived shortly after midday on Wednesday, August 14.
Plane landing (Image: The Dorset Aviator)
Plane enthusiast Jack Oliver was at the airport specifically to watch the Red Arrows arrive when he realised something unusual was happening.
He said: 'We heard a siren go off from the air traffic control fire.
'It was quite confusing at first because we didn't know what the sirens were and we didn't know what was going on.
'Then loads of fire engines appeared next to the runway and a plane landed the wrong way.'
According to Jack, there were three fire engines, a fire truck and a command van positioned alongside the runway as the aircraft came in to land.
He said: 'The fire service followed it down the runway to do checks on the plane. Then they stopped to find out what was going on and it had a mechanic flap failure on it.'
Bournemouth Airport confirmed that the jet landed without incident at 12.13pm.
A spokesperson said: 'An inbound Citation executive jet from Palma reported a technical issue and was met as a precaution by our on-site response team. The aircraft landed safely without incident at 12.13 and our team stood down shortly afterwards.'
(Image: The Dorset Aviator)
Jack, who frequently visits Bournemouth Airport to take photographs of planes, said he was impressed the jet was able to land despite the fault.
He said: 'The flaps come down to break up the airflow and slow the plane. If they hadn't, most planes would have had to divert to an airport with a longer runway. But because it was a smaller plane, it managed to land – though it went right to the end of the runway. It came in really fast.'
Jack added that the viewing spots around the airport offer unique opportunities to get close to the action.
'There's a little path down the end of one of the runways and you can see the whole way down,' he said. 'It's really cool, and I especially enjoyed watching the Red Arrows land yesterday.'
