Manchester Airport runway closed after British Airways flight from Heathrow ‘breaks its nose wheel on landing’
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A RUNWAY at Manchester Airport has been closed after a British Airways flight from Heathrow 'broke its nose on landing'.
Passengers reported hearing a 'crack and a huge shudder' as the plane slammed on the runway.
Travellers were then kept on board for 45 minutes before being evacuated and the plane was moved to the taxiway.
Bags remained on board the British Airways flight while emergency services carried out checks at the scene.
It is thought the problem was caused by an issue with the nose wheel.
The runway was closed for four hours while investigations were carried out, but there were no disruptions to flights as traffic was diverted to the second runway.
One passenger from Knutsford, Cheshire, spoke of his frustration at the incident.
Mark Hillen, who had been travelling from Chicago and was on the final stretch home after landing at Manchester, said: "The aircraft slowed very quickly, stopped, and remained stranded for 20 minutes until the pilot told us that the front landing gear had failed."We were escorted off the plane, but they couldn’t unload the luggage. They managed to get the plane off the runway and on to the taxiway."
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Annoyingly Mark - who was looking forward to a shower after a long journey - forgot to get his house keys off the plane before heading back home.
He said: "It was on the way home when I was in a taxi, that I realised my house keys were in my hand luggage which was in the hold."
Mark was then left sitting in his garden for four hours while he waited for his partner to return home and let him back in.
A British Airways spokesman said: "As part of the initial phases of the investigation for this type of event we were not able to take the baggage containers off as the aircraft was being assessed.
"We are now able to unload the baggage containers and will deliver bags to customers at the addresses they have provided. We are sorry for the delay."
They added: "Our flight landed safely and customers disembarked the aircraft as normal."
Emergency services were called to the scene, and runway one remained closed while investigations took place.
The airport tweeted: "Following this morning’s issue, we remain fully operational with traffic using runway two. At this time of the day we only need to use one runway."
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