Holiday jet in emergency landing at Gatwick

News has emerged of a British holiday jet losing a ton of fuel before landing.

Travel Insurance News - 14/04/2011

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A British jet carrying 200 holidaymakers was involved in an emergency, when it leaked more than one ton of jet fuel on the way into Gatwick airport. Details of the incident, which transpired last year, have only just emerged.

According to reports, the plane, a Boeing 757 operated by Thomas Cook, suffered an engine leak that resulted in about a ton of fuel being lost. After the plane landed at Gatwick, passengers were evacuated via emergency slides.

The plane had departed the holiday destination of Bodrum in Turkey and was about two-and-a-half hours into its flight when a warning light activated in the cockpit. The pilot initially considered making an emergency landing in Paris.

The 226 passengers and eight members of crew on the plane were told by the fire service to exit via the right-hand side of the jet because there was so much fuel spilling onto the runway. Fuel was also spilled on the taxiway, brakes and the left engine of the twin-engine plane.

According to estimates made by the plane’s captain, the jet lost about 1,300kg of fuel from its left engine. The leak was later traced to a fuel pipe coupling on the left engine’s fuel pump.

Thomas Cook said that incidents like this were rare and the jet made a safe landing. The company added that the fuel spill resulted from a minor technical fault that was quickly identified and fixed on landing.

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