An aircraft travelling from Birmingham to Jersey passenger aircraft was forced to perform an emergency landing shortly after departure due to a “technical issue” affecting one of its engines.The Blue Islands aircraft, with capacity for approximately 70 passengers, departed at 15:00 BST on Sunday before returning to Birmingham Airport, successfully landing despite strong winds.The airline’s representative confirmed their engineers were examining the aircraft, emphasising that passenger, crew and aircraft safety remained their top priority, BBC reported.The affected passengers received accommodation and meals for the night.
‘Abundance of caution’
The airline’s official statement confirmed the crew followed standard protocols, with passengers disembarking normally.The crew received a cockpit alert indicating a “technical issue” and followed procedures by shutting down the engine preventively.They clarified that the engine remained under control throughout the incident.A company representative stated: “These procedures have an abundance of caution built into them to ensure passenger safety.”Birmingham Airport confirmed one flight diversion, with no additional runway restrictions implemented.
Passengers recount horror incident, call ‘scary’
Leanne Rowe, travelling with family for holiday, attempted to calm her children whilst feeling uncertain herself.She stated: “It was pretty scary – straight from the start it was quite rocky…“My daughter was quite upset about it… at some point in the air the captain said to us that we were going to turn around because there was a problem with the engine.“You don’t really know how serious that is.”She noted fire engines were present upon landing. Lauren York described the landing as “very worrying.” York mentioned her 20-month-old son remained asleep throughout. She said: “When we touched ground and we were swerving all over the place, that was really frightening. “We were just holding on to him thinking are we going to make it? It was very worrying.”Sarah Brown praised the pilot’s handling of the situation, despite the frightening experience.She said: “We knew we’d get here safely in the end.” She noted that afterwards her children “got to go in the cockpit, meet both the pilots, so they had an experience”.The AAIB decided not to investigate further after reviewing the incident.
