PacemakerAll flights in and out of Belfast City Airport have been cancelled on Sunday evening after an Aer Lingus plane suffered an emergency incident while landing during strong winds.
The plane had flown from Edinburgh to Belfast at about 16:00 GMT with four crew members but no passengers on board.
It appears the plane’s nose wheel collapsed during landing, with pictures showing its nose resting on the runway tarmac. It is understood no-one was seriously hurt.
The airport’s runway has been shut and is not expected to reopen until Monday.
The emergency incident happened to what was described as a “positioning flight” which was operated by Emerald Airlines on behalf of Aer Lingus.
Emerald Airlines said the aircraft “experienced a hard landing upon arriving into Belfast City Airport due to adverse weather conditions”.
The police, fire service and ambulance crews were immediately deployed to the airport.
PacemakerFire Service Area Commander David Doherty said firefighters responded at 16:15 GMT after the airport “declared a full emergency”.
They sent several units as part of their expected response to an airport emergency, but he said firefighters did not have to take any immediate action.
Their resources were quickly redeployed but some crews remained at the scene as a precaution, Mr Doherty added.
Belfast City Airport told passengers not to travel to the airport on Sunday evening due to the runway closure.
Instead it advised them to “contact their airline”.
The live flight information section of its website is showing that several planes due to arrive on Sunday evening have been cancelled.
Earlier, at least four planes were diverted to Belfast International Airport, including flights from London City and Leeds Bradford.
But just before 18:30 GMT, Belfast International Airport posted on social media that it was “close to capacity” because of those diversions and its already heavier than usual schedule.
It warned it was “limited in how many redirected flights we can take this evening”.
A further five flights were diverted from Dublin Airport.
Air accident inspectors deployed
The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) is also assisting Belfast City Airport with the process of moving the damaged plane, according to the DAA’s Media Relations Manager Graeme McQueen.
He told BBC News NI that “members of Dublin Airport’s airfield operations team are currently travelling to Belfast with aircraft recovery equipment”.
“We are happy to help our neighbouring airport,” he added.
The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) confirmed that it has been notified of the emergency incident in Belfast.
Its spokesperson said: “An investigation has been launched and a team of inspectors is being deployed to the site.”
