Birmingham Airport's runway has reopened after a small aircraft made an emergency landing earlier today.
The plane developed landing gear problems and its main under-carriage collapsed on touch-down, the company that owns the aircraft says
Three people were treated at the scene with one suffering minor injuries
The plane was removed from the runway after investigators examined it on the tarmac for several hours
Passengers are facing major disruption with dozens of flights cancelled or delayed and are advised to contact their airline
Holidaymakers have been telling us about their experiences - one says: "We don't know if we're going to fly or not"
Footage shows plane landing in Birmingham Airport
We've just had an update from Birmingham Airport which says that operations are now "expected to remain suspended until at least 8pm".
The airport advises people to "speak to their airline" for further information.
Image source, Birmingham AirportHannah Karpel
Live reporter
Faye tells the BBC they are lucky to be in the airport's lounge while they wait for updates
“We’ve not been told anything. We found out about the incident on Facebook”, says Faye, who is travelling with her partner and four children, and waiting for news about their flight out of Birmingham Airport.
They were due to fly to Antalya in Turkey with Jet2 at 14:55 BST.
“It is so hot and busy” in the airport, she tells the BBC. The family have been given £10 per person for food and drinks by the airline, but Faye is remaining hopeful that their flight will still take off today.
“Someone I met has already had their flight to Greece cancelled and a friend of mine had her flight rescheduled for later tonight”.
“I’m a bag of nerves, I hate flying”, says Faye. But the family are playing games to keep themselves positive and occupied until they hear more.
Simon Browning
Transport correspondent
This is the second Wednesday in a row that crisis management teams at UK airlines have had to jump into action, after last week's air traffic control outage.
The delays at Birmingham Airport, the seventh busiest in the UK, have come at the busiest time of the year for summer tourism. Airports and airlines are operating at their peak - with some areas at capacity.
That means incidents like today’s light air crash and subsequent runway closure will cause immediate delays and cancellations, because the sector runs on incredibly tight operating margins where there is little room to absorb a sudden shock like this.
It has a domino effect - planes that have been grounded at Birmingham will cause problems going into the evening, because they should already be in the air. Then, on arrival at their destination, those planes take the next set of passengers onwards again, in a complex aviation jigsaw of moving pieces.
If those planes are still on the ground at Birmingham, passengers waiting on those planes overseas will be facing disruption too.
Yet more headaches for those crisis management teams to deal with!
Queues of people stand in Birmingham Airport following runway incident
Tim Page
BBC West Midlands
We've heard more from Colin, a delayed passenger who told us a little earlier how he had seen the stricken plane from the airport terminal.
He says their estimated departure is now 20:00 BST - originally they had hoped they would leave by 18:00.
"Our flight should have left at 14:25 so we've a five-and-a-half hour delay," he tells me.
"We have had updates throughout and each time the departure time goes back an hour".
Passenger Matty Bennett is among a family group of eight, including his two-year-old daughter, who are waiting to fly to Cyprus.
He tells BBC Radio 5Live's Drive programme: "We got to the boarding port literally half an hour before we were due to fly [at about 14:30 BST], and the doors were shut and they just told us there was an emergency on the runway.
"About 10 minutes later we were told it would be about a four-hour delay".
He adds: "There have been five flights after us that have been cancelled and told to go home... looking at the flights, we're about the tenth one to fly, so we don't know if we're going to fly or not."
Image source, ReutersAs passengers await more information on delayed flights at Birmingham Airport, here's a quick summary:
Manchester Airport has told the BBC that five flights due to land in Birmingham have been diverted there so far.
The spokesperson says there are no more flights immediately inbound, but it depends on how long Birmingham Airport is closed for.
Image source, AirTeamimagesAn unrelated Beechcraft B200 Super King Air operated by a Dutch aviation company
The aircraft involved in this incident is a Beechcraft B200 Super King Air, a small, twin-engine propeller plane that's been in production since the 1970s.
We don't know much about the flight in question, but the same model of aircraft has been used for both civilian and military purposes, including by the RAF.
In the UK, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency has used modified B200s for search-and-rescue missions, external at sea.
The aircraft typically seats up to nine people, and has a range of 1,800 nautical miles, according to charter companies that operate it, external.
Tim Page
BBC West Midlands
Ann and Colin Taylor from Stourbridge were due to fly to Sharm El-Sheik in Egypt with Tui at 14:30 BST.
They were originally told they might be delayed by five hours, Ann says, but had since been emailed to say the airline hoped to get them away earlier, by 18:00.
Colin adds that they can see the stricken plane from the terminal: "The aircraft is still in exactly the same position."
Emergency service vehicles are surrounding it, a fire engine and some smaller ones, but not much seems to be happening. It's only a light aircraft - you'd imagine they could move it fairly easily."
He tells the BBC that the terminal is very noisy and crowded with passengers waiting for flights to restart.
Image source, Colin TaylorWe've had a brief response from Birmingham Airport, after we asked its press office when the airport is likely to reopen.
"We are unable to provide a timeframe at this moment," they replied.
We'll keep you updated here with any developments.
Footage shows plane landing in Birmingham Airport
In a fresh update, Birmingham Airport says its runway remains temporarily closed.
It adds that "all persons onboard the aircraft have been discharged by West Midlands Ambulance Service".
The airport apologises for the inconvenience caused to passengers, and advises them to check the status of their flight before heading to the airport.
Both check-in and security are temporarily closed for now, it adds.
An image posted on social media of the plane on the runway at Birmingham Airport was verified by the BBC
By Joshua Cheetham
We’re continuing to gather more information about why a light plane made an emergency landing at Birmingham Airport this afternoon, leading to the closure of the runway.
Tracking data on Flightradar24 shows that soon after take-off, the King Air aircraft involved transmitted a “7700” squawk code.
These are broadcast to tell air traffic control that there is an emergency and the aircraft needs priority handling.
It’s still unclear what happened that it had to make an emergency landing.
Gabriela Pomeroy
Live reporter
Image source, Jan IngerThe closure of Birmingham Airport has cause widespread disruption to peoples' holiday plans.
I've spoken to a Slovakian man living in Spain, Jan Inger, who was on a Ryanair flight from Murcia to Birmingham Airport.
He says his plane was about to land at Birmingham Airport, when he sensed things were "a bit strange. I could feel the plane was going down more quickly than usual, and then the captain said there was a problem."
The pilot then announced they were being diverted to East Midlands Airport in Nottingham.
Jan was supposed to meet his kids at Birmingham Airport, and together they had plans to fly on to Budapest.
"My kids are disappointed. I was flying to have a holiday with them," he says.
Jan is worried about getting his connecting flight this evening, and is now waiting with all the other stranded passengers at Nottingham Airport, to find out what happens next.
Birmingham Airport website is now back up and running.
Its departures board shows five flights with delays of about five hours.
There are at least three cancelled outbound flights.
Many of the listed departures do not have information under the "status" section of the online information board, however.
For arrivals, there are 10 inbound flights showing as diverted.
Image source, Birmingham Airport/BBCA short while ago we reported that three people were assessed and discharged by paramedics at the airport.
West Midlands Ambulance Service has now confirmed that these patients had been in the plane involved in the emergency landing.
Image source, Getty ImagesAn aerial view of Birmingham Airport's runway, pictured in 2023.
In short, it's big, but not as big as other major UK airports like Heathrow or Manchester.
Birmingham Airport is an international airport situated between Birmingham and Coventry.
It is the seventh largest airport in the UK, according to the UK Civil Aviation Authority, and last year handled roughly 12 million passengers, external, or 4.3% of the country's total.
The airport offers domestic and international flights on budget airlines and major flag carriers, all from one main terminal.
Image source, FlightRadar24This flight was departing from Birmingham and headed to Belfast in Northern Ireland, according to flight tracking website, FlightRadar24.
It departed at 13:11 BST, but soon had to make a turn and flew in a holding pattern, eventually landing back at Birmingham Airport at 13:58.
About half an hour after that, the airport announced the closure of the runway.
We've just had an update from the West Midlands Fire Service, which says that three people were assessed and discharged by paramedics at the scene.
Two fire engines from Bickenhill and Sutton Coldfield responded to the incident, the service says in a statement.
"Crews were standing by to assist airport firefighters... One crew remain in attendance, standing by to support airport staff."