An ice-cool pilot kept his nerve to land a plane safely after four of its tyres burst at Leeds-Bradford Airport.

Sixty passengers were able to get off the plane without a scratch - thanks to the BMI pilot's skill.

Fire crews from nine West Yorkshire stations were scrambled to the airport in Yeadon at lunchtime yesterday to deal with the stricken Airbus flight number BD412 which had flown from Heathrow at 12.08pm.

BMI spokesman Phil Shepherd said the incident would have been much worse had it not been for the skill of the pilot and his crew.

He confirmed that four tyres had burst as the flight landed and all 60 passengers disembarked safely.

He said: "The pilot brought the plane down safely.

"It takes great skill and he is a very experienced pilot and it is great that everybody got away safely."

A Leeds-Bradford Airport spokesman also praised the pilot.

She said: "The 60 passengers on board all disembarked safely. The problem after that was removing the aircraft. The aircraft landed in a straight line and the pilot did a very good job."

Among the fire crews sent to the incident were Rawdon crews.

Rawdon firefighter Steven Parnaby said: "We were called out as a precautionary measure in case it caught fire.

"The tyres were completely flat. There was no fire but there was quite a considerable amount of heat.

"We used the thermal imaging device to check the rest of the aircraft and stood by as the airport fire service carried out their work."

The incident will be investigated by the Air Accidents Investigations Bureau (AAIB).

The AAIB is part of the Department for Transport and is responsible for the investigation of civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents within the UK. A spokesman for the Bureau said: "We are going to send a report form to the pilot and we will take it from there."

Mr Shepherd said the airline was anxious to find out what had caused the blow-outs.

He said: "It was a very, very unusual situation and keeping control of the aircraft is the primary thing. The important thing is that everyone got off safely."

Mr Shepherd said: "We do not know what caused this incident at this moment in time but the AAIB will begin their investigations straight away."

The airport was closed until about 5pm to allow air investigators to examine the plane on the runway.

But there were still delays of between half an hour and two-and-a-half hours on departures during the evening and some arrivals were diverted, cancelled or indefinitely delayed.

e-mail: saima.mir @bradford.newsquest.co.uk

  • Start or join a debate on this issue in our online forum - Click here