Belfast City Airport shut after emergency during landing

Emergency services attended the Aer Lingus plane at Belfast City Airport

All flights in and out of Belfast City Airport have been cancelled on Sunday evening after an Aer Lingus plane suffered an emergency incident while landing during strong winds.

The plane had flown from Edinburgh to Belfast at about 16:00 GMT with four crew members but no passengers on board.

It appears the plane's nose wheel collapsed during landing, with pictures showing its nose resting on the runway tarmac.

The crew were assessed at the scene by the emergency services as a precaution, but there were no reported injuries.

The airport's runway has been shut and is not expected to reopen until Monday.

'Hard landing'

The emergency incident happened to what was described as a "positioning flight", which was operated by Emerald Airlines on behalf of Aer Lingus.

Emerald Airlines said the aircraft "experienced a hard landing upon arriving into Belfast City Airport due to adverse weather conditions".

Strong winds had been forecast for Northern Ireland on Sunday and the Met Office had warned of disruption to road, rail, air, and ferry transport.

When the plane landed the police, fire service and ambulance crews were immediately deployed to the airport.

Four fire appliances and a number of specialist crew members were deployed to the runway

Fire Service Area Commander David Doherty said firefighters responded at 16:15 GMT after the airport "declared a full emergency".

They sent several units as part of their expected response to an airport emergency, but he said firefighters did not have to take any immediate action.

Their resources were quickly redeployed but some crews remained at the scene as a precaution, Mr Doherty added.

Belfast City Airport told passengers not to travel to the airport on Sunday evening due to the runway closure.

Instead it advised them to contact their airline.

The live flight information section of its website is showing that several planes due to arrive on Sunday evening have been cancelled.

Earlier, at least four planes were diverted to Belfast International Airport, including flights from London City and Leeds Bradford.

Belfast International Airport posted on social media just before 18:30 that it was "close to capacity" because of those diversions and its already heavier than usual schedule.

It warned it was "limited in how many redirected flights we can take this evening".

A further five flights were diverted to Dublin Airport.

Air accident inspectors deployed

The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) is also assisting Belfast City Airport with the process of moving the damaged plane, according to the DAA's media relations manager Graeme McQueen.

He told BBC News NI that "members of Dublin Airport's airfield operations team are currently travelling to Belfast with aircraft recovery equipment".

"We are happy to help our neighbouring airport," he added.

The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) confirmed it has been notified of the emergency incident in Belfast.

Its spokesperson said: "An investigation has been launched and a team of inspectors is being deployed to the site."