Plane skids off runway while landing at Leeds Bradford Airport

A plane has skidded off the runway at Leeds Bradford Airport while landing in heavy rain.

The incident happened as the plane – a TUI flight from Corfu – landed at the West Yorkshire airport on Friday afternoon.

A spokesperson said: “We can confirm TUI flight TOM3551 arriving from Corfu at LBA this afternoon has moved off the runway while landing.

“We are working with the airline, relevant operations teams and emergency authorities to address this situation and remove passengers from the aircraft safely.”

No injuries or fires have been reported.

The airport has been closed, with incoming flights being diverted to other airports, including Birmingham and Manchester.

Storm Babet latest: Second person dies and new red weather warning issued

Malcolm Fell, who was on the flight, described the incident as “a little bit dramatic”.

“The plane came down and the pilot applied reverse thrust and the brakes, and it started to aquaplane – or it seemed that way.

“It seemed to speed up rather than slow down.

“My wife turned to me and she said: ‘I think you better brace yourself because this is not going to stop’.

“All of a sudden we were at a standstill on the grass.”

Mr Fell said the left wing of the plane was “covered in mud” following the landing, but said everyone onboard was “quite calm”.

“It took about an hour to get off the plane because the emergency services kicked in to make sure the plane was secure before they evacuated us,” he said.

“A great thanks to the airport – they worked really well to get people off the plane.”

Fiona Marr, who was with her son watching planes land at the airport when the incident took place, described it as a “hard landing”.

“The wings were going up and down and it kind of landed sideways, then ended up in the grass,” she said.

“It was a hard landing. Straight away there was a really loud alarm coming from the airport which I’ve not heard before – and we go up there a lot.

“Then the engines came straight away. They [the passengers] must have been terrified.”

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The airport is currently under an amber weather warning from the Met Office, covering a strip of England from Newcastle down to Nottingham, amid the destructive Storm Babet.

The amber alert, which warns of persistent heavy rain and the likelihood of flooding, is in place from midday on Friday until 6am on Saturday.

A spokesperson for TUI said the airline was “aware of an incident at Leeds Bradford Airport this afternoon during the landing of flight TOM3551”, but that there had been no reported injuries.

A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service added: “(Our) command unit has now been stood down, and remaining crews are now assisting in evacuating all persons from the aircraft to the terminal.”

It comes as parts of England begin to feel the impact of the storm – which previously swept across Ireland and last night battered eastern Scotland.

Three people have died in the storm.

Police Scotland said a 56-year-old driver was killed after a tree struck a van on the B9127 at Whigstreet near Forfar at around 5.05pm on Thursday.

A woman also died in Scotland when she was swept into a river amid gale-force winds and severe flooding.

The body of the 57-year-old was recovered from the Water of Lee, a river in the eastern area of Angus, on Thursday.

A man in his 60s also died in Shropshire after getting caught in fast-flowing flood water in the town of Cleobury Mortimer on Friday, West Mercia Police said.

A rare red weather alert issued by the Met Office, warning of a “danger to life from fast flowing or deep floodwater” in parts of Scotland, was extended until midnight on Saturday.