The sight of fire engines rushing to a departing airplane with a burning engine startled tourists at Manchester Airport.
On Saturday at around 4.30 p.m., a Tui flight touched down and was immediately surrounded by a fleet of fire engines.
As passengers in adjoining departure lounges watched on, the engines immediately started blasting the right engine with water, resulting in billowing clouds of smoke.
‘Suddenly just a load of fire engines appeared and started spraying it down with water while we were having a drink at the bar,’ one eyewitness told MailOnline.
‘All this smoke started coming out. It looked like one of the engines had overheated.’
Witnesses said cabin staff extinguished the fire before emergency services arrived.
‘Sat on the ground waiting for [takeoff] and saw a few fire engines and other emergency vehicles going past,’ said Twitter user Hannah Evenden. ‘They’ve said on our flight that there was an incident with an arriving [flight].’
‘Engine fire on stand, it’s out but I imagine there’s no runway cover from the fire service as they are all at the aircraft,’ added Dutch Holland, another user.
In the meanwhile, there will be significant disruptions to rail services this weekend due to a train driver strike that coincides with the Commonwealth Games and the start of the new football season, as well as a three-day strike by maintenance workers.
‘We can confirm that aircraft TOM2609 from Mahon to Manchester airport encountered a mechanical issue upon arrival at the stand and was greeted by the fire department,’ a TUI spokeswoman said.
The security of our customers and personnel was not jeopardized and will always be our first concern. All of the passengers have left the plane after it safely landed.
‘Any customers who may experience a delay due to this will be contacted to advise them of any changes.
‘We understand how unsettling it can be when an aircraft is met by emergency services so we will continue to offer our full support.
‘We’d like to apologise to all customers for the inconvenience and thank them for their patience and understanding at this time.’
Members of the drivers union Aslef at seven train operators today staged a 24-hour walkout over compensation in the latest instance of labor upheaval in the sector.
Following two years of mostly staying put due to the epidemic, it is predicted that 70% of families have booked or are contemplating a break during the time of the travel interruption.
Scenes like those seen over the weekend at the Port of Dover and the approach to the Folkestone Eurotunnel station carry the risk of derailing these ambitions.
Smart tourists could reason that taking the ferry or train rather than navigating an airport would be a more reasonable way to go to the continent.
At airports, queues in some cases continue to stretch out of the terminals and, on your return to the UK, you may or may not be reacquainted with your luggage.