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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Andrew Stuart

Storm Dudley: Watch moment plane carrying Man City team struggles to land in high winds - before diverting to Liverpool

This is the moment the plane carrying the Man City team struggled to land in high winds at Manchester Airport.

The Jet - a Titan Airways Boeing 757 - was heading back from Lisbon in Portugal when it attempted to land at Manchester at about quarter to five on Wednesday afternoon.

It was carrying the Manchester City team, fresh from their 5-0 demolition of Sporting Lisbon in the first leg of their Champions' League last-16 clash.

The charter aircraft made an approach to Manchester Airport's westerly runway in winds that were said to be gusting at up to 40 knots.

As it approached the airfield, the aircraft initiared a 'go-around' - a normal procedure used in conditions where the approach isn't considered stabilised by the flight crew, amongst other reasons.

The aircraft is then seen on the video, which you can view above, to power up its engines and pull away from the runway.

Data from flight tracking website FlightRadar24 shows the aircraft then went into a hold over Bury and Rochdale, before eventually diverting to Liverpool, where it landed safely at around 5.20pm.

The Man City official Twitter account confirmed the diversion, saying: "We can confirm the plane transporting the first team home from Lisbon has landed safely in Liverpool, after high winds forced a diversion from Manchester."

YouTuber and aviation videographer Aviationupclose filmed the landing, and said: "With Storm Dudley in full force on Wednesday afternoon, it was a difficult approach for the pilots of Titan Airways Boeing 757 G-ZAPX operating AWC430 from Lisbon, bring [sic] Manchester City Football club home from their 5-0 win over Sporting Lisbon.

"Winds out of the West gusting up to 40 knots made the final approach very turbulent.

"The RB211's provided plenty of impressive smoky bursts of thrust to keep the aircraft stable until very short final when the approach became unstable and a go around was commanded.

"After around 15 minutes of holding the decision was made to divert the aircraft to Liverpool, quite interesting given the nature of the flight!"

Storm Dudley - and storm Eunice - is causing disruption around the UK and will continue to do for the next few days.

Thousands of homes have been left without power after Storm Dudley swept through parts of the UK.

Watch as GMB's Laura Tobin warns of conditions Storm Eunice is set to bring

Capel Curig in Wales experienced gusts of up to 81mph, with Emley Moore in West Yorkshire and Drumalbin in South Lanarkshire seeing 74mph winds.

National Rail said as of 7am Thursday, dozens of train companies have been affected in the north of England, the Midlands, Wales and across most of Scotland, including LNER, Transport for Wales and ScotRail.

Northern Powergrid said 1,000 properties still had no lights on Thursday morning due to the weather.

The Met Office has issued yellow weather warnings until 10am on Thursday for Scotland, with wintry showers overnight leading to a risk of ice.

It comes ahead of Storm Eunice, which is predicted to bring in winds in excess of 95mph in coastal areas while inland areas could still see gusts to around 80mph, the weather service added.

National Highways, with The Met Office, have issued a severe weather alert for strong winds covering the East of England, East Midlands, West Midlands, South East and South West, between the hours of 6am and 6pm on Friday.

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