Bangkok--19 Jun--eturbonews
Services at Birmingham International Airport were severely disrupted Thursday when a freighter operated by the TNT transport company made an emergency landing. Birmingham International (BHX) is the fifth busiest airport in the UK and second busiest outside London after Manchester.
The Boeing 737-300 freighter was en route from Liege in Belgium to the company's distribution base at Stansted, but was diverted at first towards Nottingham East Midlands because of poor visibility in bad weather conditions in the south of England.
The pilot then became aware of problems with the aircraft's undercarriage and declared an emergency. The plane landed with a collapsed undercarriage at Birmingham, where the runway was sprayed with foam as a safety precaution. It came to a standstill tilted to one side at the end of the runway. There was no fire and no one was injured.
There were two crewmembers on board and no passengers. TNT Express said the freight plane was "fully compliant" with all airworthiness checks and certificates, was up-to-date with its maintenance schedule, and the pilot was very experienced with the type of aircraft.
Officials from the Air Accident Investigation Board began an immediate investigation on site. The emergency put much of the main runway out of use for the day, though some small aircraft were able to take off using a short length of the runway. An airport spokesman said the aircraft would not be moved until the investigators had finished their examination.
Over 80 flights were cancelled or diverted to other UK airports including Bristol, Coventry, Manchester and East Midlands. Thousands of intending passengers were bussed by road to Manchester to catch their flights, and were advised to check in at Birmingham as normal throughout the day. Inbound flights were diverted and travellers brought to Birmingham by road.
Airport staff were working to minimize the disruption but delays were inevitable. "It is an organized operation but passengers do face disruption, there are certainly more passengers in the terminal than usual. But we are coping very well, and all the catering outlets are able to provide refreshments to passengers," he said.
Passengers waiting for flights out of Birmingham were keeping their spirits up. "You've just got to keep smiling, haven't you?" Jim Francis told a BBC reporter. "We're off to Egypt for two weeks so a bit of a wait won't make much difference."
Birmingham International acts as the Midlands' premier gateway to continental Europe, Scandinavia, North America, the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent. Its European route network includes 12 departures per day to Edinburgh and Glasgow, 9 daily flights to Paris and Frankfurt as well as regular scheduled services to popular resort destinations with low fares airlines. Seven low cost carriers use the airport, Ryainair, MyTravelLite, Flybe, Monarch Scheduled, bmibaby, Germanwings and Aer Lingus.
More than 50 airlines use the airport and serve 125 destinations, including twice daily departures to New York, daily services to Dubai. In 2005, 9.4 million passengers passed through Birmingham's two terminals.