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A plane has skidded off the runway at Leeds Bradford Airport while landing in heavy rain.

The incident happened as the plane – a TUI flight from Corfu – landed at the West Yorkshire airport on Friday afternoon.

A spokesperson said: “We can confirm TUI flight TOM3551 arriving from Corfu at LBA this afternoon has moved off the runway while landing.

“We are working with the airline, relevant operations teams and emergency authorities to address this situation and remove passengers from the aircraft safely.”

No injuries or fires have been reported.

The airport has been closed, with incoming flights being diverted to other airports, including Birmingham and Manchester.

Storm Babet latest: Second person dies and new red weather warning issued

Emergency services at the scene after a passenger plane came off the runway at Leeds Bradford Airport while landing in windy conditions during Storm Babet. Picture date: Friday October 20, 2023. PA Photo. See PA story WEATHER Babet. Photo credit should read: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

Malcolm Fell, who was on the flight, described the incident as “a little bit dramatic”.

“The plane came down and the pilot applied reverse thrust and the brakes, and it started to aquaplane – or it seemed that way.

“It seemed to speed up rather than slow down.

“My wife turned to me and she said: ‘I think you better brace yourself because this is not going to stop’.

“All of a sudden we were at a standstill on the grass.”

Mr Fell said the left wing of the plane was “covered in mud” following the landing, but said everyone onboard was “quite calm”.

Malcolm Fell, who was on the TUI flight which skidded off the runway at Leeds Bradford Airport, said the whole left wing of the plan was "covered in mud". Pic: Malcolm Fell
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Malcolm Fell said the left wing of the plane was covered in mud following the incident

“It took about an hour to get off the plane because the emergency services kicked in to make sure the plane was secure before they evacuated us,” he said.

“A great thanks to the airport – they worked really well to get people off the plane.”

Fiona Marr, who was with her son watching planes land at the airport when the incident took place, described it as a “hard landing”.

“The wings were going up and down and it kind of landed sideways, then ended up in the grass,” she said.

“It was a hard landing. Straight away there was a really loud alarm coming from the airport which I’ve not heard before – and we go up there a lot.

“Then the engines came straight away. They [the passengers] must have been terrified.”

Emergency services at the scene after a passenger plane came off the runway at Leeds Bradford Airport while landing in windy conditions during Storm Babet. Picture date: Friday October 20, 2023. PA Photo. Flood warnings are in place in Scotland, as well as parts of northern England and the Midlands. Thousands were left without power and facing flooding from "unprecedented" amounts of rain in east Scotland, while Babet is set to spread into northern and eastern England on Friday.  See PA story WEATHER Babet. Photo credit should read: Danny Lawson/PA Wire
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Emergency services at the scene

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Storm Babet batters large parts of the country

The airport is currently under an amber weather warning from the Met Office, covering a strip of England from Newcastle down to Nottingham, amid the destructive Storm Babet.

The amber alert, which warns of persistent heavy rain and the likelihood of flooding, is in place from midday on Friday until 6am on Saturday.

A spokesperson for TUI said the airline was “aware of an incident at Leeds Bradford Airport this afternoon during the landing of flight TOM3551”, but that there had been no reported injuries.

A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service added: “(Our) command unit has now been stood down, and remaining crews are now assisting in evacuating all persons from the aircraft to the terminal.”

It comes as parts of England begin to feel the impact of the storm – which previously swept across Ireland and last night battered eastern Scotland.

Red, amber and yellow weather warnings are in place for rain and wind. Pic: Met Office
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Red, amber and yellow weather warnings are in place for rain and wind. Pic: Met Office

Three people have died in the storm.

Police Scotland said a 56-year-old driver was killed after a tree struck a van on the B9127 at Whigstreet near Forfar at around 5.05pm on Thursday.

A woman also died in Scotland when she was swept into a river amid gale-force winds and severe flooding.

The body of the 57-year-old was recovered from the Water of Lee, a river in the eastern area of Angus, on Thursday.

A man in his 60s also died in Shropshire after getting caught in fast-flowing flood water in the town of Cleobury Mortimer on Friday, West Mercia Police said.

A rare red weather alert issued by the Met Office, warning of a “danger to life from fast flowing or deep floodwater” in parts of Scotland, was extended until midnight on Saturday.

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Prosecutors consider more charges against Lucy Letby

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Prosecutors consider more charges against Lucy Letby

Prosecutors are considering whether to bring further criminal charges against Lucy Letby over the deaths of babies at two hospitals where she worked

The Crown Prosecution Service said it had received “a full file of evidence from Cheshire Constabulary asking us to consider further allegations in relation to deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital”.

“We will now carefully consider the evidence to determine whether any further criminal charges should be brought,” it added.

“As always, we will make that decision independently, based on the evidence and in line with our legal test.”

Letby, 35, was found guilty of murdering seven children and attempting to murder seven more between June 2015 and June 2016 while working in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital and is currently serving 15 whole-life orders.

lucy letby
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Letby worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital

She is understood to have carried out two work placements at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where she trained as a student, between October and December 2012, and January and February 2015.

Police said in December that Letby was interviewed in prison as part of an investigation into more baby deaths and non-fatal collapses.

A Cheshire Constabulary spokesperson said: “We can confirm that Cheshire Constabulary has submitted a full file of evidence to the CPS for charging advice regarding the ongoing investigation into deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neo-natal units of both the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital as part of Operation Hummingbird.”

Detectives previously said the investigation was looking into the full period of time that Letby worked as a nurse, covering the period from 2012 to 2016 and including a review of 4,000 admissions of babies.

Letby’s lawyer Mark McDonald said: “The evidence of the innocence of Lucy Letby is overwhelming,” adding: “We will cross every bridge when we get to it but if Lucy is charged I know we have a whole army of internationally renowned medical experts who will totally undermine the prosecution’s unfounded allegations.”

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Three managers at the hospital where Lucy Letby worked have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

On Tuesday, it was confirmed that three managers at the Countess of Chester hospital had been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter in a separate investigation.

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Police said the suspects, who occupied senior positions at the hospital between 2015 and 2016, have all been bailed pending further inquiries.

There is also an investigation into corporate manslaughter at the hospital, which began in October 2023.

A public inquiry has also been examining the hospital’s response to concerns raised about Letby before her arrest.

In May, it was announced the inquiry’s final report into how the former nurse was able to commit her crimes will now be published early next year.

Earlier this year, Letby’s lawyers called for the suspension of the inquiry, claiming there was “overwhelming and compelling evidence” that her convictions were unsafe.

In February, an international panel of neonatologists and paediatric specialists told reporters that poor medical care and natural causes were the reasons for the collapses and deaths.

Their evidence has been passed to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, and Letby’s legal team hopes her case will be referred back to the Court of Appeal.

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More criminal charges being considered over baby deaths at Lucy Letby hospitals

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More criminal charges being considered over baby deaths at Lucy Letby hospitals

The Crown Prosecution Service has said it is considering whether to bring further criminal charges over the deaths of babies at hospitals where Lucy Letby worked.

The CPS said it had received “a full file of evidence from Cheshire Constabulary asking us to consider further allegations in relation to deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital”.

“We will now carefully consider the evidence to determine whether any further criminal charges should be brought,” it added.

“As always, we will make that decision independently, based on the evidence and in line with our legal test.”

Letby, 35, was found guilty of murdering seven children and attempting to murder seven more between June 2015 and June 2016 while working in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital and is currently serving 15 whole-life orders.

She is understood to have carried out two work placements at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where she trained as a student, between October and December 2012, and January and February 2015.

On Tuesday, it was confirmed that three managers at the Countess of Chester hospital had been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

Police said the suspects, who occupied senior positions at the hospital between 2015 and 2016, have all been bailed pending further inquiries.

There is also an investigation into corporate manslaughter at the hospital, which began in October 2023.

A public inquiry has also been examining the hospital’s response to concerns raised about Letby before her arrest.

In May, it was announced the inquiry’s final report into how the former nurse was able to commit her crimes will now be published early next year.

Earlier this year, Letby’s lawyers called for the suspension of the inquiry, claiming there was “overwhelming and compelling evidence” that her convictions were unsafe.

In February, an international panel of neonatologists and paediatric specialists told reporters that poor medical care and natural causes were the reasons for the collapses and deaths.

Their evidence has been passed to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, and Letby’s legal team hopes her case will be referred back to the Court of Appeal.

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‘Catastrophic failure’ led to Heathrow power outage – with chances missed to prevent it

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'Catastrophic failure' led to Heathrow power outage - with chances missed to prevent it

A power outage that shut Heathrow Airport earlier this year, causing travel chaos for more than 270,000 passengers, was caused by a “catastrophic failure” of equipment in a nearby substation, according to a new report.

Experts say the fire at the North Hyde Substation, which supplies electricity to Heathrow, started following the failure of a high-voltage electrical insulator known as a bushing, before spreading.

The failure was “most likely” caused by moisture entering the equipment, according to the report.

Two chances were also missed that could have prevented the failure, experts found, the first in 2018 when a higher-than-expected level of moisture was found in oil samples.

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Moment Heathrow substation ignites

Such a reading meant “an imminent fault and that the bushing should be replaced”, according to guidance by the National Grid Electricity Transmission.

However, the report by National Energy System Operator (NESO) said the appropriate responses to such a serious issue were “not actioned”, including in 2022 when basic maintenance was postponed.

“The issue therefore went unaddressed,” the report added.

The design and configuration of the airport’s internal power network meant the loss of just one of its three supply points would “result in the loss of power to operationally critical systems, leading to a suspension of operations for a significant period”, the report added.

Heathrow – which is Europe’s biggest airport – closed for around 16 hours on 21 March following the fire, before reopening at about 6pm.

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Heathrow bosses were ‘warned about substation’

Around 1,300 flights were cancelled and more than 270,000 air passenger journeys were disrupted.

Tens of millions of pounds were lost, thousands of passengers were stranded, and questions were raised about the resilience of the UK’s infrastructure.

More than 71,000 domestic and commercial customers lost power as a result of the fire and the resulting power outage, the report said.

NEOS chief executive, Fintan Slye, said there “wasn’t the control within their [National Grid’s] asset management systems that identified that this [elevated moisture levels] got missed.

“They identified a fault, [but] for some reason the transformer didn’t immediately get pulled out of service and get repaired.

“There was no control within the system that looked back and said ‘oh, hang on a second, you forgot to do this thing over here’.”

Sky’s science and technology editor, Tom Clarke, pointed to the age of the substation’s equipment, saying “some of these things are getting really very old now, coming to the end of their natural lives, and this is an illustration of what can happen if they are not really well maintained”.

The report also highlights a lack of joined-up thinking, he said, as “grid operators don’t know who’s critical national infrastructure on the network, and they don’t have priority”.

Responding to the report’s findings, a Heathrow spokesperson said: “A combination of outdated regulation, inadequate safety mechanisms, and National Grid’s failure to maintain its infrastructure led to this catastrophic power outage.

“We expect National Grid to be carefully considering what steps they can take to ensure this isn’t repeated.

“Our own Review, led by former Cabinet Minister Ruth Kelly, identified key areas for improvement and work is already underway to implement all 28 recommendations.”

In May, Ms Kelly’s investigation revealed that the airport’s chief executive couldn’t be contacted as the crisis unfolded because his phone was on silent.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who commissioned the NESO report, called it “deeply concerning”, because “known risks were not addressed by the National Grid Electricity Transmission”.

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Mr Miliband said energy regulator Ofgem, which opened an investigation on Wednesday after the report was published, is investigating “possible licence breaches relating to the development and maintenance of its electricity system at North Hyde.

“There are wider lessons to be learned from this incident. My department, working across government, will urgently consider the findings and recommendations set out by NESO and publish a response to the report in due course.”

The Metropolitan Police previously confirmed on 25 March that officers had “found no evidence to suggest that the incident was suspicious in nature”.

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