Gatwick Airport incident: Flights suspended at busy London airport after British Airways Boeing flight aborts take-off

Chaos has erupted at Gatwick Airport this afternoon (Friday 28 June) with flights temporarily suspended due to an incident. Flights have been suspended after a British Airways Boeing 777-200ER from London Gatwick to Vancouver aborted its takeoff.

A runway had to be closed following the emergency, as the plane remained on the tarmac for some time. Ground vehicles, including fire crews, responded to the incident.

The plane has been been moved from the runway - and the runway has since reopened, however it has led to disruption of flights. Seven flights have been cancelled as a result of the emergency, so far and passengers have been left stranded on grounded planes queueing for the runway.

At least 10 planes, including easyJet and Wizz Air, were also diverted to nearby airports including Stansted and Heathrow. An eyewitness, who was on another plane and waiting to take off, told ITV News Meridian: "Just as we were about to roll onto the runway for takeoff, the pilot announced another aircraft was stuck on and blocking the runway and that they didn’t know how long it would take to clear.

"We must be knocking on for an hour now. The plane has now been towed from the runway and our engines are back up and running.”

A London Gatwick spokesperson said: "The main runway was closed for a short time today (26 June) due to a departing aircraft having hot breaks. Safety is our top priority and the dedicated airport fire service swiftly attended to support the aircraft.

"A number of flights were diverted. The runway is now open and operating as normal."

In a statement, British Airways said: "Our pilots took the precautionary decision to cancel take-off due to a technical issue. Safety is always our top priority and we apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused."