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LONDON, England – A British Airways plane with 75 passengers on board made an emergency landing at Heathrow airport today after one of its engines caught fire.

LONDON, England – A British Airways plane with 75 passengers on board made an emergency landing at Heathrow airport today after one of its engines caught fire.

Eye-witnesses reported seeing a fire in the right-hand engine of the Airbus 319 as it was forced to land just minutes after it took off at 8.17am bound for Norway’s capital Oslo.

Residents on the Heathrow flight path said there was an “almighty blow-out” from the aircraft as it flew at just a few thousand feet above them.

BA said the jet, which is now being examined by investigators, had developed a “technical fault”. Suggestions that it was grounded by a bird strike will form part of the investigation.

Passengers were evacuated from the aircraft, BA flight 762, using emergency slides and up to 10 fire crews raced to extinguish the flames. At least three passengers were treated by ambulance crews for minor injuries.

The emergency landing forced the closure of both runways for half an hour, as incoming flights were diverted to other airports in the South-East and many others were cancelled.

Clive Cook, who lives on the flightpath, said: “The actual engine itself was on fire. This plane was coming over and suddenly the tone of its engine changed dramatically. I’d almost say it sounded as if it was like a blow-out or an explosion.”

Another eye witness, an armed forces member calling himself only Aiden, said he saw smoke “swirl off the wing tip” as he drove near the airport.

He added: “The plane was coming right over my head and I had to brake because when I saw the starboard engine it was all blackened.

“The reverse thrusters, the flaps on the side of the carriage were open. The port engine was all clean and normal. The starboard one was all flames inside and fully blackened.”

A third eyewitness, named only as Jamie, was working in his garden near Stamford Bridge in Chelsea. He said: “All of a sudden we heard this almighty noise. We could see the right engine on fire — it was horrendous. You don’t see things like that every day.

“Your thoughts are with the people. If we could hear it that badly then what were the passengers going through?”

The stricken aircraft had taken off on the southern runway but performed an emergency U-turn on to the northern runway, which remained closed today as it was blocked by the jet.

Passengers faced severe delays as the airport operated both arrivals and departures with only one runway — effectively running at half capacity.

The drama happened on a very busy day for Heathrow as about 100,000 travellers pass through it for the start of the bank holiday getaway. BA will be carrying more than 463,000 customers over the entire bank holiday weekend, with 128,000 travelling tomorrow and another 116,000 flying on Monday.

The inquiry will be carried out by BA, the Air Accident Investigation Board and the Civil Aviation Authority.

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لیندا هونهولز

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