Praise for 'hero' pilot

The airport was on full emergency stand-by

A British Airways pilot has been hailed a hero after landing a stricken passenger plane forced to make an emergency landing at Liverpool Airport.

I'd like to thank the captain for what he did - he was brilliant

Passenger Philip Ewing

The plane touched down shortly after 1900 BST on Tuesday in a shower of sparks after developing undercarriage problems.

Passengers - two of whom suffered minor injuries - were forced to slide down emergency chutes after the BA Regional Turboprop plane landed lopsided on the runway, one wing scraping along the ground.

Airport's managing director Rod Hills, said the pilot - as yet unnamed - had shown exceptional skill and said passengers were "incredibly lucky" because of his cool handling of the emergency.

Panic on board

An air accident investigation has been launched into the incident.

The landing brought an end to a terrifying three-hour ordeal in which the 44 passengers and four crew had an agonising wait as the captain repeatedly circled the airport to burn off excess fuel.

Amateur video caught the plane's final descent

A stream of ambulances and fire engines stood waiting as the airport declared a full-scale alert, but in the event most of the plane's passengers were able to return to Manchester to board another flight to Belfast.

Passenger Philip Ewing, 44, of Sandbach, Cheshire, said: "The captain was fantastic and the stewardesses were great, even though they were panicking inside."

He said he would love to find out the pilot's name so he could send him a card, adding: "I'd like to thank him for what he did. He was brilliant."

We all adopted the brace position and closed our eyes

Sarah Groogan

The drama began shortly after Flight BA7787 took off from Manchester. The pilot reported trouble with the landing gear and the twin-engined plane was immediately diverted to Liverpool.

Michael Bathgate, commercial director for British Regional Airlines, said the pilot would be interviewed to help establish the exact cause of the incident.

He added: "He [the pilot] landed it perfectly safely. On touchdown the left-hand wing touched the runway. There were some sparks. The aircraft came to a stop perfectly safely."

'Phenomenal morale'

Passengers praised the crew's behaviour during their three-hour wait before the landing.

Sarah Groogan from Dungiven, County Londonderry, said morale on the flight was "very good probably until the last five minutes". She said: "Then anxiety crept in. Silence."

Sarah Groogan: Absolute panic

"On the final approach, the air stewardesses were absolutely excellent," she added.

"The last final moments the pilot said 'Brace. Brace.' We all adopted the brace position we all closed our eyes...We thought things were going well. Then we tipped to the left and slid about the runway a bit and got off."

Miss Groogan said "absolute panic" was going through her head in the last few moments. She said the pilot's final words as they landed were that he hoped to see everybody in the terminal building.

Electrical engineer Ray Harris, from Carrickfergus, County Antrim, also paid tribute to crew. He said: "The morale among the passengers was absolutely phenomenal."