A holiday jet transmitted an emergency code after it aborted an attempt to land at Bristol Airport seconds before touchdown.
The TUI flight from the Cape Verde islands was coming in to land at Bristol Airport just after 6am this morning when it suddenly aborted the landing and climbed again, before diverting to Birmingham Airport instead.
Data from the FlightRadar website showed the Boeing 787 Dreamliner had descended to just 825ft off the ground as it crossed over the A38 road next to the airport at Luslgate, before aborting the landing attempt and heading back up towards Weston-super-Mare.
Updates: Bristol Airport live: Disruption amid more cancelled flights
The TUI flight was packed with passengers from Espargos, the main airport on the Cape Verde Islands. The flight had been supposed ti take off from the islands off the West African coast at 8.55pm last night, Tuesday, but the flight was delayed and did not take off until after midnight instead.
It was due to land at 6.10am but eventually touched down safely at Birmingham Airport at 6.43am. As the plane's pilots charted a course to Birmingham, having turned north over Bristol, they transmitted a '7700' general emergency code to air traffic controllers, indicating there was a problem on board.
Plane spotters in the Bristol area reported noticing the plane had been in difficulty first thing this morning. "It didn't sound healthy as she flew over Portishead," wrote one on social media. "That sure was loud and odd sounding over Clevedon". It is not yet clear why the planes diverted, or what the emergency was and TUI has been contacted for more information
The issues with the plane have had a knock-on effect to other passengers and flights from Bristol Airport. The Boeing Dreamliner - the biggest passenger jet to use Bristol Airport - was due to be the flight from Bristol to Melbourne in Florida later this morning, but that flight is now delayed.
Last month, the return of the first direct flights from Bristol to the US in years were announced, with flights scheduled several times a week from Bristol to the small airport of Melbourne, close to the 'Space Coast' near the NASA base in Florida.
That flight was due to take off this morning at 9.45am, but passengers are currently - as of 10.45am - being told the next information they will receive about this will be at 11.30am.
UK travellers have faced more delays today following a strike by Italian aviation workers is causing more misery for UK travellers. Dozens of flights between the UK and Italy were cancelled on Wednesday, with easyJet, Ryanair and British Airways among the airlines affected.
EasyJet axed 20 Gatwick flights, including departures to Bologna, Milan, Naples, Rome and Venice. Some 14 flights between London airports and Milan were cancelled by British Airways, while Ryanair scrapped a handful of flights between Italy and Stansted.
Pilots and flight attendants who are members of two Italian unions are conducting a strike from 10am until 2pm over various issues including pay, sick pay, time off and refreshments.
One of the unions, the Italian Union of Transport Workers (UILT), has warned that if an agreement is not reached, “this will be only the first of a series of protest actions”.
EasyJet and British Airways continued to cancel flights to and from other locations other than Italy due to staff shortages. In recent months, many passengers whose flights have gone ahead reported being stuck in airport queues for several hours.
Follow the latest updates on this story and others like it here
