A TUI plane arriving from Corfu skidded off the Tarmac and came to a stop on the grass when landing because of the adverse weather conditions of Storm Babet. Nobody was injured.
Airport bosses confirmed that it would shut as the wind and rain continued to batter the region, and is expected to re-open at some point today.
However, the departure boards continue to confirm that al flights departing from Lees Bradford remain cancelled until early this afternoon. These include scheduled services to Ibiza, Warsaw, Parma, Belfast, Dublin, Alicante, Bratislava, Amsterdam and Split, among other destinations.
Some flights have been re-scheduled to take off from alternative airports, including Liverpool, Teesside, Manchester and East Midlands. Flight arrivals have also been cancelled for the next few hours.
A statement from the airport bosses read: “We ask passengers to contact their airline to check the status of their flight before travelling to the airport.”
Witnesses said that the flight from Corfu was “almost sideways” as it came in to land at Leeds Bradford during yesterday’s storm.
TUI released a statement which read: “We would like to apologise to all those impacted by the closure of Leeds Bradford Airport on Friday, October 20 following an incident that took place shortly after landing on TOM3551 from Corfu.
“The safety of our customers and crew is our number one priority and we can confirm there were no reported injuries, with all passengers disembarking the aircraft via the steps.”