London, May 24: Heathrow airport, Europe's most busiest, was closed on Friday after a British Airways plane made an emergency landing.
All 75 passengers and crew were safely evacuated from the plane, which landed on the airport's northern runway, a Heathrow spokeswoman said.
Both runways were closed initially, but the southern runway was later reopened.
A BA spokesman said the incident, which took place at about 9.00 a.m. (GMT), was not terror-related and there was speculation that the aircraft may have flown into a flock of birds.
“The Airbus A319 aircraft was carrying 75 customers. The aircraft landed safely and emergency slides were deployed and we are currently caring for our customers” said a statement by the British Airways.
They added that the aircraft was flying from Heathrow to Oslo, but had to return back to the airport due to the technical fault.
Footage captured on a mobile phone camera and shown on Sky News showed a jet trailing smoke from its right engine as it flew over London.
One witness, who was working in a garden in Chelsea when the plane flew overheard, said he feared something terrible was about to happen when he saw flames coming from the engine.
“It was very low and horrendous to watch,” a man named Jamie told Sky News.
“It's the kind of thing you see seconds from disaster. There was loads of flames coming from the back of the right engine as it came over us. The noise was like a fighter jet [The engine] was on full fire when we saw it” he said.
London fire brigade said a crew from Heathrow fire station had assisted Heathrow airport's fire service with an aircraft fire. “We believe the fire is now out,” it said.
