Leeds Bradford Airport says the airplane – a TUI flight from Corfu – “moved off the runway” while landing.
By James Robinson, Sky News reporter @thejournojames
A airplane has skidded off the runway at Leeds Bradford Airport while landing in heavy rain.
The incident occurred because the airplane – a TUI flight from Corfu – landed at the West Yorkshire airport on Friday afternoon.
A spokesperson mentioned: “We can affirm TUI flight TOM3551 arriving from Corfu at LBA this afternoon has moved off the runway while landing.
“We are working with the airline, related operations groups and emergency authorities to handle this case and take away passengers from the plane safely.”
No accidents or fires have been reported.
The airport has been closed, with incoming flights being diverted to different airports, together with Birmingham and Manchester.
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Malcolm Fell, who was on the flight, described the incident as “a little bit dramatic”.
“The airplane got here down and the pilot utilized reverse thrust and the brakes, and it began to aquaplane – or it appeared that approach.
“It appeared to hurry up fairly than decelerate.
“My spouse turned to me and he or she mentioned: ‘I believe you higher brace your self as a result of this isn’t going to cease’.
“All of a sudden we were at a standstill on the grass.”
Mr Fell mentioned the left wing of the airplane was “covered in mud” following the landing, however mentioned everybody onboard was “quite calm”.
“It took about an hour to get off the plane because the emergency services kicked in to make sure the plane was secure before they evacuated us,” he mentioned.
“A great thanks to the airport – they worked really well to get people off the plane.”
Fiona Marr, who was together with her son watching planes land at the airport when the incident occurred, described it as a “hard landing”.
“The wings were going up and down and it kind of landed sideways, then ended up in the grass,” she mentioned.
“It was a tough landing. Straight away there was a extremely loud alarm coming from the airport which I’ve not heard earlier than – and we go up there quite a bit.
“Then the engines got here right away. They [the passengers] will need to have been terrified.”
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Storm Babet batters massive components of the nation
The airport is presently below an amber climate warning from the Met Office, overlaying a strip of England from Newcastle right down to Nottingham, amid the harmful Storm Babet.
The amber alert, which warns of persistent heavy rain and the chance of flooding, is in place from noon on Friday till 6am on Saturday.
A spokesperson for TUI mentioned the airline was “aware of an incident at Leeds Bradford Airport this afternoon during the landing of flight TOM3551”, however that there had been no reported accidents.
A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service added: “(Our) command unit has now been stood down, and remaining crews are now assisting in evacuating all persons from the aircraft to the terminal.”
It comes as components of England start to really feel the impression of the storm – which beforehand swept throughout Ireland and final evening battered japanese Scotland.
Three individuals have died within the storm.
Police Scotland mentioned a 56-year-old driver was killed after a tree struck a van on the B9127 at Whigstreet close to Forfar at round 5.05pm on Thursday.
A lady additionally died in Scotland when she was swept right into a river amid gale-force winds and extreme flooding.
The physique of the 57-year-old was recovered from the Water of Lee, a river within the japanese space of Angus, on Thursday.
A person in his 60s additionally died in Shropshire after getting caught in fast-flowing flood water within the city of Cleobury Mortimer on Friday, West Mercia Police mentioned.
A uncommon purple climate alert issued by the Met Office, warning of a “danger to life from fast flowing or deep floodwater” in components of Scotland, was prolonged till midnight on Saturday.
