Holiday jet diverts to Manchester with landing gear problems moments before flying over Deeside

A Lanzarote bound holiday jet which took off from Newcastle this morning diverted to Manchester with landing gear problems as it was about to fly over Deeside.

The flight which took off at 9.30am circled over Newcastle airport just after take off due to an ‘indicated fault’ with the planes landing gear.

The jet then preceded along the designated route to the Canary Islands which would have seen it fly over Broughton however it took up a holding pattern over Blackburn before heading back towards Cheshire.

Moments before it entered Deeside airspace the captain took the decision to fly the short distance to Manchester airport where the airport fire service were put on standby for the unscheduled landing.

Quoted on the BBC North East live blog a Jet2 spokesperson said:

“The captain took the decision to divert to Manchester as a precautionary measure due to an indicated fault with the landing gear.

“The aircraft has landed safely and passengers are currently being transferred on to a waiting aircraft.

“We apologise for the delay to the start of our customers’ holidays but their safety is our absolute priority”.

Images: Flightradar 24