An airline has apologised after a 'technical issue' with one of its planes led to it blocking a taxiway at Manchester Airport for several hours. The knock-on effect meant that a Brussels Airlines flight to Brussels and a TUI flight to Cape Verde both had to be cancelled as they were stuck behind the Cathay Pacific aircraft, that had been due to fly to Hong Kong.
Simon Lowe Aviation streamed the shots of the Cathay Pacific flight on the taxiway to his Youtube channel on Thursday and throughout the afternoon, before the aircraft was moved by the evening. It comes as the airport reportedly saw 'congestion and delays' due to 'ice and freezing temperatures' on Thursday.
Cathay Pacific has now issued an apology and confirmed that the affected plan is being inspected by engineers. No information has been provided about the nature of the suspected malfunction.
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A spokesman for the airline said: "Cathay Pacific confirms that Flight CX216 departing from Manchester to Hong Kong on 15 December (local time) has been delayed due to a technical issue that caused the aircraft to block the taxiway. The aircraft has since been moved and is now being inspected by our engineers.
"We apologise for the disruption and inconvenience caused to our customers and also for other flights that were disrupted due to the blocked taxiway. We have arranged hotel accommodation and dinners for our customers while maintenance work is being performed. We will continue to communicate with customers and endeavour to resume their journey as soon as possible."
Brussels Airlines said that passengers embarking in Brussels have since flown home, while passengers travelling to Brussels on connecting flights have been rebooked on other services. "A Cathay Pacific aircraft was indeed blocking the runway due to technical issues which meant our aircraft OOSND (flight SN2174) was also blocked for several hours on the Manchester runway yesterday 15 th December," a Brussels Airline spokesman said.
"Due to UK Safety Regulations it wasn’t possible to get towed back to the terminal. Instead our passengers had to wait for busses sent to the taxiway to disembark them.
"Despite the difficult situation, we did our utmost best to find solutions for all our passengers. The passengers with connecting flights, were rebooked on other flights. Only the ones having Brussels as final destination, left with our own flight to Brussels in the evening."
Passengers were also left disappointed last weekend after flights were halted at the airport due to the snow. Both runways at the airport were temporarily closed to remove snow and slush from the ground, meaning that both inbound and outbound flights were disrupted, with some cancelled while others were delayed.
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