Heavy snow forces runway closure

East Midlands Airport was forced to close its runway for 40 minutes on Sunday night due to heavy snow.

A spokeswoman said four planes were diverted to either Birmingham or Manchester where the weather conditions were less severe.

A BBC reporter on one of the flights said passengers were told the airport's de-icer had not worked.

But an airport spokesman denied this, blaming the sheer volume of unforeseen snow in a short space of time.

Fuel problem

BBC reporter Lisa McCarthy, who was on a flight from Edinburgh, said the aircraft circled the airport for some time.

"We were told at about 10 to nine that the de-icer had been put down and that it would take 15 minutes to work.

"We were then told just after nine that it would be another 10 minutes, then we were told the de-icer hadn't worked and the ground crew were having to rake away the snow and that would take another hour.

"So the pilot decided, because I think there was a problem with the fuel on the plane, that he would divert us to Birmingham."