Emergency alert at Belfast City Airport ends

26/03/2010

By James Wilson.

An emergency alert was raised at George Best Belfast City Airport yesterday (March 25th).

Low-cost carrier Flybe was operating a service to Glasgow that was called back after its pilot witnessed technical problems during take-off.

Fire engines and ambulances attended the airport at around 07:35 GMT but were not needed as the aircraft returned to the airport safely.

All 61 passengers and four crew members left the plane safely and no-one was injured.

BBC News reports that eyewitnesses revealed smoke was coming from one of the aircraft's engines, but a Flybe spokesperson denied this.

The spokeperson told STV: "Our engineers are looking at the plane. We are investigating the problem right now."

The incident caused a small amount of disruption at the airport, with a following service to Glasgow being delayed by around three hours, they added.

Flybe was the only UK airline recently ranked in Forbes' 2009 World's Most On-Time Airlines.