All flights have been grounded at Gatwick Airport after a plane suffered a technical issue.
A Boeing 787 aircraft became stuck on the runway due to a problem with its landing gear and had to be towed away.
The plane appeared to be surrounded by several fire engines and the runway was closed for around 50 minutes.
The Daily Mail understands it was a Norse Atlantic Airways flight to New York that was due to take off just after 1pm.
Thousands of passengers are facing travel disruption, with airport staff working to remove the aircraft and resume flights as soon as possible.
Gatwick has two runways but, due to their proximity, they can’t be used at the same time.
Passengers have been advised to still travel to the airport and check online with their airlines.
One person posted on X: ‘Scenes at Gatwick, Norse plane rejected takeoff (apparently stuck nose gear), stuck on runway with about 20 ground vehicles surrounding it.
‘Loads of aircraft holding, could be tonnes of diversions!’
The plane appeared to be surrounded by several fire engines and the runway is currently closed
Another passenger travelling from the Isle of Man added: ‘I’m stuck on a plane returning from the IOM to Gatwick after jawbone surgery yesterday.. exhausted.
‘The plane has diverted to Luton…I’d rather get out and catch a train back to London!’
A London Gatwick spokesperson said: ‘The runway was closed for 50 minutes this afternoon (Friday 4 September) due to a technical issue with a departing aircraft.
‘The aircraft was towed from the runway, which reopened shortly afterwards following a full safety inspection.
‘As always, safety and security is our number one priority.’
It is the latest issue to affect Gatwick after passengers were left without running water in July.
Flyers were unable to flush toilets, wash their hands or refill water bottles for hours due to the outage.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow
