An easyJet service from Paphos and a TUI flight from Larnaca were diverted to other airports on Friday morning after Gatwick’s runway closed following an emergency landing by a British Airways airplane from Naples, the Evening Standard reported.
It said hundreds of air passengers faced a travel nightmare this morning after planes were diverted to the wrong airports following the emergency landing.
All incoming aircraft were on diversion when a plane performed an emergency landing due to a hydraulic fluid leak, it said .
Flights were diverted to Birmingham and Luton after Flight BA2605 was forced to land with a technical fault in the early hours of Friday, the British newspaper said.
The airport said unspecified technical problems were being investigated, and that the plane had been inspected while on the runway.
No-one was injured in the incident and passengers were able to disembark the plane a short time later.
A spokeswoman for Gatwick Airport said: “A British Airways flight that was inbound from Naples to London Gatwick landed with a technical fault, which resulted in the aircraft stopping on the runway whilst an inspection of the aircraft took place.
“During this time, our runway remained temporarily unavailable while we switched over to our stand-by runway.
“As a result of the runway being unavailable, a number of aircraft diverted away from Gatwick.”
A spokeswoman for British Airways added: “Our flight landed safely after our pilots requested a priority landing as a precaution after a technical fault. The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority, and our engineers are currently conducting a thorough check of the aircraft.”
