Just doing my job, says pilot

No worries: Pilot Nick Davies and stewardess Jane Aston

A pilot who crash-landed a plane after circling for three hours to burn off fuel has been called a hero by his passengers.

But British Airways pilot Nick Davies played down his role and praised the crew of the plane, which touched down at Liverpool airport in a shower of sparks after developing undercarriage problems.

We knew we had a problem - but the full scale wasn't realised until we worked our way through the appropriate checklist

Pilot Nick Davies

"Everyone worked well to get a good result and that happened," said Captain Davies. "I was just doing my job."

The pilot said he knew early on that things were not right on the twin-engine BA Regional Turboprop aircraft with 44 passengers and four crew. It had taken off from Manchester for Belfast on Tuesday evening but was diverted to Liverpool.

Passengers left the plane by an emergency chute

"We got a warning on the flight desk almost straight away after taking off. We knew we had a problem, but the full scale was not realised until we worked our way through the appropriate checklist.

"The training that we get covers loads of different eventualities and that was one of them. We are fully trained to handle this sort of situation, we do practice this sort of thing.

"The passengers were kept informed throughout the incident and they were fully briefed prior to landing."

Two passengers suffered minor injuries after the plane landed lopsided on the runway, one wing scraping along the ground.

Sarah Groogan: Absolute panic

An air accident investigation has been launched into the incident. A stream of ambulances and fire engines had stood by as the airport declared a full-scale alert.

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

Another passenger, 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."

We all adopted the brace position and closed our eyes

Sarah Groogan

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

"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."

Amateur video caught the plane's final descent

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."

Michael Bathgate, commercial director for British Regional Airlines, said: "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."