Stobart Air flight from Belfast declares ‘general emergency’ over Worcester and is forced to land in Birmingham
- Stobart Air flight left Belfast Airport at 10.40am today heading for Exeter, Devon
- But it suffered a ‘general emergency’ over the Worcester area after taking off
- Flight was diverted to Birmingham Airport, where it is said to have landed safely
A charter plane has been forced to land in Birmingham Airport after declaring a ‘general emergency’ over the West Midlands today.
The Stobart Air flight – STK3690 – departed Belfast at 10.43am heading for Exeter.
But it suffered an emergency over the Worcester area, with an alert issued just before midday, according to Flightrader24 – which tracks live air traffic.
‘Stobart Air flight STK3690 diverts to Birmingham Airport in UK after declaring general emergency,’ the site posted.
It is unclear what the nature of the emergency was and how many passengers or crew were on board.
The Stobart Air flight – STK3690 – departed Belfast at 10.43am heading for Exeter. But it suffered an emergency over the Worcester area, with an alert issued just before midday, according to Flightrader24 – which tracks live air traffic
A spokesperson for Birmingham Airport said they could not comment on individual airlines.
Stobart Air was founded in 1970 with a small fleet of BN-2 Islanders aircraft.
On its website it said: ‘Today, Stobart Air is one of Europe’s leading franchise, ACMI and charter aviation specialists.
‘Every week, we operate up to 940 flights across 43 routes in 11 European countries with our partners Aer Lingus, including flights from Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Donegal and Kerry.’
In February, an C-17 Globemaster III left RAF Brize Norton – but was forced to make an emergency landing at the city airport after ‘initial reports of smoke being reported in the cabin.’
Emergency vehicles, including the fire brigade, were on alert. The RAF plane later made a successful landing.