A New York-bound Delta Airlines flight made an emergency landing on Friday at Scotland’s Glasgow Prestwick Airport after suffering engine problems and passengers saw flames shoot from the aircraft’s wing, BBC reported.
Delta Airlines flight DAL209 departed from Edinburgh at 10:50am (local time). The flight was suddenly diverted to land at Prestwick when the passengers reported hearing a loud bang and the aircraft suffered engine problems just moments after it took off.
Footage of flames around the aircraft’s wing have emerged on social media. A video shot from inside the plane shows flames apparently coming from the aircraft’s wings, and passengers can be heard panicking in the background.
Delta Airlines confirmed the incident. “Delta flight 209 from Edinburgh to New York-JFK safely diverted to Glasgow Prestwick Airport. We apologize to our customers for this inconvenience and are working to get them to their final destinations via Edinburgh,” CBS news reported citing a spokesperson.
“We were requested at 11:23 to assist our fire service partners at Prestwick Airport. Operations Control mobilized four appliances to the site, where firefighters remain working to support their partners”, a spokesperson for the fire service told the news website.
A BBC journalist, Laura Pettigrew, was on board when the incident happened. She said, “The plane took off and there was a loud engine noise, similar to the noise normally during take-off and landing, but it seemed to continue once we were in the air. The captain walked up the length of the plane and then there was a Tannoy announcement – although no one could hear it.”
“When the plane touched down we could see fire trucks and firefighters with hoses rushing towards us. We were told to leave all our belongings and get off as quickly as we could”, she added.
According to Pettigrew, the report said that she was not aware of the seriousness of the incident until they went down to the terminal and heard people talking about what had happened. She also applauded the cabin crew for their calm behaviour. She said, “They kept everyone calm. The pilots seemed to do a smooth job of getting us down safely. Apparently the cabin crew were preparing for a crash landing.”