• Delays after passenger jet lands at Heathrow with engine fire

    Stefan Wermuth / Reuters

    A worker walks past a British Airways passenger jet after it was towed off the runway following an emergency landing at Heathrow Airport west of London on May 24, 2013.

    By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC News

    LONDON - Europe’s busiest airport was disrupted for several hours Friday after a British Airways plane made an emergency landing at Heathrow with a fire in at least one engine.

    Thousands of travelers were delayed or diverted to other London airports following the incident, shortly after 8 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET).

    All 75 passengers were safely evacuated from the Airbus A319 using emergency chutes, but one of the airport’s two runways was closed for almost two hours and the other was also briefly shut.

    Significant delays and disruption were expected for the rest of the day at Heathrow, and British Airways said it was canceling all its short-haul flights – to the UK, Europe and parts of north Africa – until 4 p.m. local time Friday (11 a.m. ET).

    The stricken jet suffered technical problems as it took off for Oslo, Norway, and was forced to return for an emergency landing.

    Eyewitnesses reported smoke billowing from the right hand engine as the jet made its approach over south-west London.

    In a statement, British Airways said Flight BA762 had suffered a "technical fault," but fire officials said they had extinguished a blaze.

    Amateur video of the aircraft in the air showed smoke coming from one engine, and a picture posted to Twitter by one of the passengers after landing showed the aircraft covered in fire-retardant foam. 

    The incident will likely cause disruption for families getting away over the school holiday, which starts on Monday. Britain also has a public holiday on Monday, adding to the number of travelers using Heathrow.

    "We were able to reopen the northern runway within two hours of the incident and we are now focused on returning the airport to normal as quickly as possible," Heathrow's duty manager Mark Freeman told Reuters.

    David Wyllie, breakingnews.com, and Reuters, contributed to this report.

    This story was originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 4:30 AM EDT

  • Metal chunks hit cars in Toronto after Air Canada jet engine failure

    An Air Canada Boeing 777 airplane was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff from Toronto's Pearson International airport after debris fell from the plane. NBC's Tom Costello reports.

    By Alastair Jamieson, msnbc.com

    Chunks of metal the size of a cellphone fell onto cars in a neighborhood near Toronto airport Monday, around the same time as an Air Canada Boeing 777 made an emergency landing, CBC reported.

    The airliner, bound for Japan, suffered a failure in one of its engines shortly after takeoff from Pearson International Airport.

    The plane dumped fuel before returning to Pearson, landing normally using one engine. No injuries were reported.


    The aircraft is thought to be fitted with GE90 engines. (GE is part-owner of NBC Universal, which is joint parent company of msnbc.com).

    At least four vehicles were hit by pieces of metal, according to Peel regional police Constable George Tudos, but there was no immediate confirmation the debris was from the plane.

    “We believe it is, but it's not up to us — we're not the investigating body,” Tudos told CBC.

    "As it [the plane] was traveling away from Pearson we had other complaints stating that debris, consisting of metal objects, was falling from the sky," he said.

    On Twitter, residents near the intersection of Derry and Kennedy Roads in Mississauga were posting photos of a vehicle’s rear windshield that was apparently smashed by falling material from the plane, Canada's National Post reported.

    CBC said there were 318 passengers and 16 crew aboard Flight AC001, which took off from Pearson at 2:10 p.m. ET and returned to make its emergency landing at 3:53 p.m. ET.

    Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick said the plane's crew requested the emergency landing shortly after takeoff.

    A businessman who was on board the plane tweeted that passengers were told it was an engine overheating.

    "Seems my plane fell apart! Luckily we managed to land it," Jason Flick tweeted, adding that the plane spent 20 minutes dropping fuel.

    The passengers were given hotel accommodation overnight and were expected to resume their journey Tuesday.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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