Leeds United plane emergency down to electrical fault, says report

The club was returning to Leeds from London after playing Crystal Palace on 9 October

A plane carrying the Leeds United team home after a Premier League game was evacuated after flight staff smelled smoke on landing, a report has said.

The Whites' Eastern Airways plane was met by emergency vehicles on the Leeds Bradford airport runway in October 2022.

The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) said the electrical issue led to a "rapid disembarkation" on landing.

None of the four crew or 41 passengers were injured, it added.

Leeds United were returning home after losing 2-1 to Crystal Palace in the capital on 9 October.

At the time, the BBC reported that the players could smell "burning rubber" on the plane but it landed safely at about 19:30 BST that evening.

According to the AAIB report, the issue was identified as a "static inverter failure".

A static inverter is a device that uses electronic circuitry to convert DC (direct current) to AC (alternating current) power.

The manufacturer of the device identified 42 "previous events of smoke, or a smell of smoke" due a failure of the part.

The report said "new procedures" would be introduced to prevent a similar incident happening again.

Initially, a total of 50 firefighters from stations across West Yorkshire had been sent to the scene "due to the nature of the incident".

However an airport spokesperson said at the time: "Precautionary emergency procedures were followed, however nobody was harmed in the incident and the flight landed safely.

"Normal services resumed quickly."

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