by Beth Williamson January 6th, 2010
Reports have been coming in that show that a Ryanair jet was forced to make an emergency landing in Liverpool on Monday over fears of a fire on board the plane. The plane was en route to Agadir in Morocco from Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport. After a fire indicator light came on in the cockpit, the airplane made a u-turn and landed back at the airport.
The plane, which was a Boeing 737 was forced to return to the airport and make an emergency landing less than half an hour after takeoff. The 116 passengers and crew members that were on board scrambled onto an inflatable emergency slide to evacuate the plane. Then the people were rushed away from the aircraft. No injuries were reported, and Ryanair arranged a spare aircraft to fly the delayed passengers on to Agadir.
Police and ambulances rushed to the site and fire crews scoured the plane for signs of fire with thermal imaging equipment. After looking over the plane, there was no evidence of a blaze, and a faulty fire indicator light is believed to have been the caused of the whole scare.
A spokesman for John Lennon Airport, Robin Tudor, said an emergency was declared after a report of a fire on board reached the cockpit. However, it appears that there was no fire on board. Everyone on the plane was evacuated, and the passengers were gotten away from the aircraft as quickly as possible. The airport remained close for one hour after the event, which did cause a few delays.