Birmingham airport reopens after plane makes emergency landing

 Holidaymakers were left stranded after an emergency landing by a private aircraft caused one of Britain’s busiest airports to ground flights.

All departures and arrivals at Birmingham airport were halted between 1.40pm and 8pm on Wednesday, leaving thousands of passengers stuck.

The plane, which was destined for Belfast, turned around to land back at Birmingham. Pictures showed it to the side of the airport’s main runway, with apparently collapsed landing gear.

Three people from the aircraft were treated at the scene, with one suffering minor injuries, police said.

Emergency services including police, fire and ambulance all attended the scene at the airport’s runway.

Footage and images shared on social media appeared to show the small white plane lying on its belly on the airport tarmac.

More than 115 flights were likely to have been disrupted, potentially affecting tens of thousands of passengers.

In an update posted on social media just before 8pm on Wednesday, the airport said: “Following the aircraft incident today, the runway has reopened and operations have resumed.”

“Our teams have worked as quickly as possible, in line with strict protocols, which must be followed to ensure a safe reopening of the runway following a prolonged closure,” the X post said.

A total of 21 inbound flights were forced to divert away from Birmingham, with Ryanair and Jet2 arrivals dispersing as far away as Stansted and Manchester airports.

A total of 60 departures were scheduled to leave Birmingham between the time of the emergency landing and 8pm. Another 56 flights were meant to arrive over a similar time period.

Holidaymakers were advised by the airport to check with their airline before travelling to the airport. Those already there were told that they would be kept informed by airport staff, bosses wrote on X.

The average flight arrival into the airport was delayed by 42 minutes, according to Flightradar24.

‘Frustrating’ for passengers

Departures were delayed for longer, with the average departure due two hours from the scheduled time. For both arrivals and departures, the “disruption index” is 5.0, the maximum on a scale from 0-5.

Birmingham airport’s website crashed as thousands of potentially stranded passengers scrambled to find out if their delayed flights were likely to take off.

The Air Accidents Investigations Branch (AAIB) said it had started an investigation, with “a multi-disciplinary team including inspectors with expertise in aircraft operations, engineering and recorded data” deployed to the airport.

Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, claimed the disruption at the airport was “minimal” but she understood “how frustrating” the situation was for passengers.

The incident comes a week after an air traffic control failure grounded planes across London’s airspace for more than an hour at the start of the summer holidays.

The chaos was caused by “technical issues” following “radar failure” that lasted 20 minutes, according to a Department for Transport source.

On Tuesday, a key road tunnel to terminals two and three at Heathrow closed for two hours from 9.30am because of a “technical issue”.

Struggling plane made low pass over airport

Data from Flightradar24 suggests the aircraft that made the emergency landing at Birmingham airport was a Beech King Air 200. This is the same type of plane that crashed at Southend airport in July, killing all four people aboard.

The flight returned to Birmingham after taking off at around 1.30pm, the data show. Just over a minute after take-off, it made a right-hand turn before carrying out a circuit around the airport.

It then made what appeared to be a low pass over the runway before climbing away again. Such low passes are sometimes carried out by pilots who want air traffic control to visually check whether or not their plane’s wheels are down.

After the low approach, at a height of around 300ft, the Beech made its final approach on runway 30, facing to the north-west.

The sequence of events suggests a landing gear retraction problem occurred, causing the pilots to make a precautionary return to Birmingham rather than continuing all the way to Belfast.

The Beech King Air is operated by Woodgate Aviation, a Northern Ireland-based private charter operator.

Registered G-NIAA, the plane is 44 years old, according to Civil Aviation Authority records, and is owned by an Isle of Man company, Bluesky Investments. It appears to have been used in the past as an air ambulance. The company declined to comment by phone.

The company’s website says: “For our Medi-Vac Service, we utilise two Beech King Air 200s from our base at Belfast International airport. The aircraft can accommodate a patient and up to four passengers (medical team and/or relatives) depending on the clinical needs.”

As well as carrying patients, the company also handles urgent movements of human organs for emergency transplants.

It is not known how many people were aboard, although King Airs typically carry at least two pilots.

A West Midlands Police spokesman said: “We are at Birmingham airport this afternoon after a small aircraft was involved in an emergency landing at around 1.40pm.

“Officers are among the emergency crews at the scene, and one person has been reported to have minor injuries.

“The Civil Aviation Authority has been informed, and the airport has suspended operations as an investigation is carried out. Travellers are urged to follow updates from Birmingham airport for further information.”

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: “We were called at 1.45pm to an incident involving a light aircraft at Birmingham Airport. Hazardous area response team (HART) paramedics and three paramedic officers were sent to the scene.

“Upon arrival we found three patients from the aircraft, all of whom were assessed and discharged at the scene.”

While the delays affect thousands of people, the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) encouraged those stuck at the airport to visit the National Exhibition Centre while they waited to fly.

Camra said on Birmingham airport’s post on Facebook about the delay: “Hi all, we hope everyone is safe. Our Great British Beer Festival is happening at the NEC right now, next to Birmingham Airport.

“If anyone is stuck with nowhere to go please come along, you will not have to pay entry, we have a no and low bar for those who don’t drink alcohol, and plenty of food stalls too.”

Gunnar Lauridsen, a 76-year-old from Denmark who has been on holiday playing golf, said he would most likely miss his connecting flight because of the closed runway.

He said: “We are ultimately going to Billund in Denmark. This delay probably means we can’t get our connection. So that means that we will be staying probably in Amsterdam overnight.

“I should have been to the doctors tomorrow morning. When you travel, things happen.”

He said he had been given a new flight time nearly two hours after he was meant to take off from the airport.

Haley, who did not want to give her surname, was waiting to get a flight to Majorca and said she was told by Tui to check-in as normal but had since been told she could not enter the airport.

The 42-year-old said: “It’s taken the shine off a bit. We’re trying to stay positive.”

‘Our flight landed at different airport’

Paul, aged 62, and his wife Corinne, 55, who did not give their surnames, travelled to Wales for six days from Zurich to visit their niece and said the delay to their flight home was “annoying”.

Corinne said: “I just hope we get back tonight because he has a very important business appointment tomorrow.

“I’m just surprised it’s been three hours (since the emergency landing) and they closed everything.”

Paul said: “It’s definitely a little bit annoying, certainly when things don’t go to plan. It would be nice if we had more information.”

The couple said they had been given a new flight time for later on Wednesday evening.

Faye Melhuish, 38, who arrived home from a holiday in Spain with her six-month-old daughter, said her plane could not land at Birmingham and had to be diverted.

She said: “We flew from Spain and we were due to land here at 2.20pm. Then, in the air we were circling to see if we could land.

“The captain basically said we are going to have to go to East Midlands (airport).”

Ms Melhuish said she had to wait for around an hour for a coach to bring her back to Birmingham airport.