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Belfast City Airport flights cancelled after plane emergency

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Belfast City Airport flights cancelled after plane emergency


grey placeholderPacemaker An Aer Lingus plane on the runway at Belfast City Airport.  Emergency crews in high viz clothing are standing close to the plane which appears to have suffered a collapse of its nose wheel.Pacemaker

Emergency services attended the Aer Lingus plane at Belfast City Airport

All 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.

grey placeholderPacemaker Fire crews on the runway at Belfast City Airport, parked in front of an Aer Lingus plane which suffered a hard landing.  A number of emergency workers are standing next to the plane. Pacemaker

Four fire appliances and a number of specialist crew members were deployed to the runway

Fire 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.”



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Next Gen ATP Finals: Brazilian teenager Joao Fonseca beats Learner Tien in Jeddah

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Next Gen ATP Finals: Brazilian teenager Joao Fonseca beats Learner Tien in Jeddah


Teenager Joao Fonseca beat American Learner Tien to be crowned the second-youngest winner of the Next Gen ATP Finals title.

The 18-year-old Brazilian, who was the youngest player in this year’s competition and lowest ranked, overcame Tien 2-4 4-3 (10-8) 4-0 4-2 in Jeddah.

Only Jannik Sinner, in 2019, has lifted the title at a younger age than Fonseca, who won all five of his matches at the season-ending tournament for the top-ranked male players aged 21 and under.

The pair also met in the group stage on Thursday, with Fonseca, ranked 145th in the world, again coming out on top against his 19-year-old opponent.

The event has a best-of-five format with four games winning a set.

As well as world number one Sinner, other former champions include four-time Grand Slam winner Carlos Alcaraz and world number 11 Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Tien started brightly and took the opening set in Saudi Arabia. But once Fonseca got himself level after a tight second set that went into a long tie-break, he was able to frustrate his opponent and seal the title in the fourth set.

“I was really nervous before the match. I knew it was going to be so difficult,” Fonseca said.

“I played a final against Learner in juniors at the 2023 US Open and I know the way he can play. He is such a nice guy and a great player, so I knew it was going to be difficult, mentally and physically. But I got through.”

Speaking before the final, Fonseca spoke of how he wanted to emulate Sinner, for whom he was a hitting partner at last year’s ATP Finals – where he said he was convinced by the Italian to turn professional.



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Giovanni Pernice wins Italian dance show Ballando Con Le Stelle

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Giovanni Pernice wins Italian dance show Ballando Con Le Stelle


grey placeholderGetty Images Bianca Guaccero and Giovanni Pernice dressed in black outfits hold hands mid-dance routine with green and blue neon lights in the background.Getty Images

Bianca Guaccero and Giovanni Pernice were partners on Ballando Con Le Stelle – the Italian answer to Strictly

Giovanni Pernice has won the Italian version of Strictly Come Dancing months after a BBC internal investigation into complaints about his behaviour on the show.

Professional dancer Pernice said his Ballando Con Le Stelle victory with partner Bianca Guaccero, who is also his girlfriend, was a dream, adding: “After a difficult year I’m back”.

In September, the BBC upheld complaints of harassment and verbal bullying made against him by his 2023 partner Amanda Abbington, but cleared him of allegations of physical aggression.

It had been confirmed in June that Pernice would not be featuring in this year’s Strictly.

Pernice and Guaccero, who is an actress and singer, won the 19th season of Ballando Con Le Stelle after performing dances including the Argentine Tango and the Charleston.

The pair had recently confirmed their status as a romantic couple.

Italian-born Pernice shared several posts on Instagram about his win and thanked UK fans for their support.

The BBC apologised to Pernice’s former partner Amanda Abbington in September. Abbington, who played Mary Morstan in Sherlock, has since said she felt vindicated and that she had “no regrets” after making the complaints.

In response to the BBC’s findings, Pernice said he was “relieved” allegations he was threatening and abusive were found not to be true.

He said he was a “strict teacher” but not a bully in a TV interview in October, admitting frustration is commonplace for both contestants and the professionals with the pressure “to perform perfectly on the Saturday night”.

grey placeholderPA Media Both dressed in white and cream colours, Giovanni Pernice and Amanda Abbington dance on the Strictly stage. The judges' panel can be seen behind them as well as some audience members although the light is focussed on the couple. PA Media

Giovanni Pernice and Amanda Abbington during a live Strictly performance in October 2023

On Instagram on Sunday, Pernice said: “We did it!! WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS !! after a difficult year.”

He added: “It felt amazing to be in the final again doing what I love – and then to win as well was a dream and definitely something I will never forget!”

On Saturday he had addressed his “dear friends in the UK, saying he and his partner could tell where the votes for the show were coming from as it is “all about likes on social media”.

Pernice wrote: “We just want to say a massive thank you, because realistically, we couldn’t do anything without you.

“We can totally see which part of the votes are coming from the UK and you are being unbelievably amazing.”



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Britain’s worst major train stations for cancellations named

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Britain’s worst major train stations for cancellations named


grey placeholderOli Scarff/Getty Images A crowd of people heading towards ticket barriers at Manchester Victoria station. Oli Scarff/Getty Images

The north west of England had the highest rate of cancelled railway stops across Britain

Manchester Victoria has been the worst of Britain’s busiest railway stations for cancellations so far this year.

About one in 10 of 10,506 scheduled stops were cancelled between January and November 2024, according to National Rail figures collected by train data website On Time Trains.

This contributed to the north-west of England being the region with the highest rate of cancelled railway stops across Britain at 6.5%, with 611,047 cancellations.

The government said it was committed to delivering the biggest overhaul of the railways in a generation, bringing services back into public ownership to reinvest in them.

Meher, 22, a recent graduate from Bolton, has experienced regular cancellations at Manchester Victoria.

She said as a student in Preston, she had probably missed hundreds of hours of university because of train cancellations.

“I think most of the time, we were more stressed about our trains than our work,” she said. “It was mostly at evening time when we were heading back, so we were coming home later than expected and missing quite a bit of mosque.”

Meher said cancelled trains had meant travelling home in the dark more often, adding: “If it’s darker, then it’s much worse and you’re alone as well. It does impact your safety.”

grey placeholderA close-up of Daniel, a young ginger-haired man with facial hair, looking at the camera with a neutral expression. He wears dark-framed glasses and a dark hoodie. Stretching into the distance above him is the metal and glass canopy sticking out from a train station wall. Blurred to the right of him is a section of pavement, railings and road, with a number of pedestrians walking along.

Daniel said train cancellations had affected his university experience

Daniel, 19, who also commutes to university via Manchester Victoria, said he usually aimed to arrive an hour early in anticipation of cancellations disrupting his journey.

Although living at home meant he saved money, he said relying on trains had proven stressful.

“A lot of my friends live on campus and they have it much easier – but I wouldn’t like to pay for accommodation,” he said.

More than three million train stops in Britain have been cancelled from January to November this year – 3.8% of the nearly 83 million scheduled.

This breaks down into a 3.9% cancellation rate in England and Wales and 2.9% in Scotland.

BBC analysis calculated the percentage of scheduled stops with a cancelled arrival and/or departure by using National Rail data collected by On Time Trains.

This differs from the cancellation analysis by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), which factors in full and partial cancellations, planned timetable changes, strikes and reduced staffing.

Amber, 21, travels from Liverpool Lime Street regularly, but said her train was cancelled about 25% of the time.

“It’s annoying that the minimum service isn’t being adhered to,” she said. “It would be unheard of down south.

“Cities up north have to just deal with it, because there’s no other option.”

Liverpool Lime Street had the 11th highest cancellation rate of any station in Britain, with 12,062 trains (5.9%) cancelled between 1 January and 30 November this year.

Of the 100 railway stations in Britain ranked busiest by the ORR, three of the five worst for cancellations were in Manchester: Manchester Victoria (9.5%), Manchester Oxford Road (8.1%) and Manchester Piccadilly (6.7%).

In England, the regions with the worst overall cancellation rates were the North West on 6.5%, followed by the South West on 4.8% and the North East on 4.6%.

Three of the five areas across Britain with cancellation rates below the overall national rate were in the south or east of England.

grey placeholderCampaign for Better Transport A close-up of Michael Solomon Williams, a man with sandy hair and beard and brown eyes. He is wearing a white shirt and dark suit jacket, and looks at the camera with a neutral expression neutral. The background behind him is blurred.Campaign for Better Transport

Michael Solomon Williams from Campaign for Better Transport said the rail network needed to improve

Michael Solomon Williams, from transport charity Campaign for Better Transport, said passengers in the North had “suffered for far too long”, with “far more” investment made in the South.

“There’s been a case of economic and social inequality which has been directly related to transport inequality over a number of years,” he said.

“We need to invest more in the north than in the south to rebalance things.”

Network Rail manages 20 of Britain’s busiest and biggest stations. It leases the rest to train operating companies who manage them but are not responsible for the punctuality of other operators using the stations.

Rail Delivery Group, which represents National Rail and train operators, said cancellations could be caused by weather, industrial action, trespass and track, train or signalling faults.

It said this was not acceptable and everyone was working hard to ensure train services were reliable and punctual.

grey placeholderEPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock Sign saying 'Manchester Oxford Road' in front of train and tall, narrow clock tower at Manchester Oxford Road station.EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Manchester Victoria and Manchester Oxford Road were number one and two for cancellations among Great Britain’s busiest stations

Northern, which manages Manchester Victoria and Manchester Oxford Road stations, said it had been working hard to address train crew availability issues, to improve reliability.

It said a rest day working agreement had been reached with drivers and it would continue to work with the RMT union to find a “new way forward” after conductors recently rejected an offer relating to Sunday working.

The RMT said it was seeking further talks with the company.

The Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she was concerned by the figures on train cancellations. She said: “I’m not happy about the performance of Northern Rail at the moment.”

She added that the issue with Northern “is related to the availability of train crew specifically on a Sunday”.

“One of the things we’ve had to do there whilst we work through resolving that with the trade union and local workers is we’ve actually decided to reduce the timetable slightly to improve reliability”.

She said that in the new year, the government will be looking at how to reduce reliance on rest day working.

Network Rail, which manages Manchester Piccadilly station but does not run train services, said its job was to “help keep passengers safely on the move”.

It said it understood how frustrating disruption was for passengers and it supported train operators at the station to deliver a reliable service.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Passengers are being let down by poor services, which is why we are committed to delivering the biggest overhaul of the railways in a generation.”

They said bringing services back into public ownership would put passengers at the heart and allow the government to reinvest in railways, while holding operators to account.



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Tributes to nine-year-old killed in Christmas market attack

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Tributes to nine-year-old killed in Christmas market attack


Tributes have been paid to a nine-year-old boy who was killed in an attack on a German Christmas market.

André Gleißner died after a car drove into a crowd of shoppers at the market in Magdeburg on Friday evening, a local fire department said.

A social media post, reportedly attributed to his mother, called André “my little teddy bear” and said he would “always live in our hearts”.

Four women, aged 45, 52, 67 and 75, also died in the attack. Authorities are holding a suspect in pre-trial detention on counts of murder, attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm.

Another tribute came from a fire department in nearby Schöppenstedt.

In a statement it said André was a member of the children’s fire brigade in Warle, which is about an hour’s drive from Magdeburg.

“Our thoughts are with André’s relatives, who we also want to support during this difficult time,” the statement said.

The Lower Saxony youth fire brigade also paid tribute to the nine-year-old.

“Our condolences go out to his family, his friends and everyone who was close to him,” it said in a statement.

“We stand by their side in these difficult times and express our deepest sympathy,” it added.

The attack on Friday left more than 200 people injured, with some left in a critical condition.

The four women who were also killed have not yet been identified.

The car ploughed into the crowded market via an emergency vehicle access lane about 19:00 local time (18:00 GMT) on Friday, police said.

Eyewitnesses described jumping out of the car’s path, fleeing or hiding. Unverified social media footage showed the vehicle speeding through a pedestrian walkway between stalls.

Police said the driver then returned to the road and was forced to stop in traffic, where he was arrested.

Around 100 police, medics and firefighters attended the scene, according to city officials.

A 50-year-old man has been remanded in custody on suspicion of five counts of murder, multiple attempted murders and dangerous bodily harm, police said.

The suspect has been identified in local media as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a Saudi-born psychiatrist who arrived in Germany in 2006.

The motive behind the attack remains unclear but authorities say they believe the driver acted alone.

German authorities are facing questions about security after reports they were warned last year that the suspect could pose a threat.

The Saudi foreign ministry said it warned the German government about al-Abdulmohsen’s extremist views, but received no response.



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