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All flights were temporarily suspended at Gatwick Airport this afternoon after a British Airways flight was forced to make an emergency stop on the runway.
The Boeing 777 jet was seen blocking all other flights from taking off, sparking travel chaos for thousands of British holidaymakers.
Video footage taken from passengers onboard the flight showed fire engines making their way over to the stationary vehicle, with travellers being told take-off had been ‘aborted’.
Flight G-VIIT BA2279 was due to depart to Vancouver this afternoon before it was forced to do a ‘high-speed emergency stop’.
A statement from the airport said the plane had been abandoned ‘due to the departing aircraft having hot breaks’.
According to travel expert Simon Calder at least 12 flights were diverted including an Emirates A380 flight from Dubai that was instead forced to land in Brussels.
It is unknown how many flights in total have been affected on what is the busiest aviation day of the year so far.
The airport’s runway was forced to close following a ‘rejected take-off’, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24. The website reported the closure at 12.53pm reopening at 1.14pm.
‘Safety is our top priority and the dedicated airport fire service swiftly attended to support the aircraft,’ a spokesperson added. ‘A number of flights were diverted. The runway is now open and operating as normal.’
A British Airways spokesperson said: ‘Our pilots took the precautionary decision to cancel take-off due to a technical issue.
‘Safety is always our top priority and we apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused.’
It marks yet another hiccup this week for families trying to get away for the summer.
Families flying from Birmingham Airport faced long queues for security with one passenger describing it as a ‘health and safety disaster’.
Travellers using the airport have faced waits of up to several hours to get through the terminal in recent weeks following the opening of a £60million security hall.
The new area will eventually allow passengers to leave liquids up to two litres and large electrical items in cabin luggage while they go through security, but fresh government restrictions mean passengers are still only limited to 100ml bottles.
One video filmed earlier this week showed a long queue of cars waiting to get into the drop-off area today. Witness Olly Carruthers said it was ‘chaos’ with the zone ‘completely broken and backing up’.
Another traveller said he had waited for more than an hour by 5.30am this morning and had still not reached the lifts to pass security – with 1,000 people in the queue.
The airport – which also denied the figure of 1,000 people in the queue – told how staff removed 0.8 tonnes of liquids, pastes and gels in containers which were over the 100ml hand luggage limit going through security between 3.30am and 7am.
Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.
