A plane spotter could hardly believe what he was witnessing when an Aer Lingus flight landed heavily on Sunday at Belfast City Airport — skidding down the runway in a shower of sparks.

Belfast City Airport has re-opened on Monday morning after an incident involving an Aer Lingus plane landing on Sunday closed the runway. Hundreds of passengers were affected with flights cancelled or diverted. The Aer Lingus regional carrier had no passengers onboard and four crew members when the flight landed heavily due to the bad weather.

Runway closed and several flights redirected on Sunday when aircraft suffered a collapsed nose wheel on landing

Emergency services rushed to the scene of a hard landing of an Aer Lingus plane at Belfast City Airport on Sunday. The landing gear on the twin-engine turboprop short haul craft appeared to have failed,

A plane’s nose wheel collapsed as it landed in the airport amid adverse weather conditions on Sunday afternoon. There were four crew on board and no passengers when the hard landing occurred. The incident triggered emergency procedures at Belfast City Airport and forced the runway to close for the rest of the day.

The plane, operated by Emerald Airlines for Aer Lingus, had travelled from Edinburgh to Belfast with four crew and no passengers on board. A number of flights have been cancelled on Monday morning, with routes affected including those to Birmingham,

It had flown from Edinburgh to Belfast with four crew but no passengers on board. The crew were assessed at the scene by the emergency services as a precaution, but there were no reported injuries. Almost 40 flights in and out of Belfast City Airport were disrupted as a result of the emergency - some were cancelled and the rest were diverted to other airports.

Emergency services have rushed to Belfast City Airport after a plane crash landed on the runway after flying through the high speed winds battering the country. The airport’s runway shut down after an Aer Lingus plane had an emergency while performing a “hard” landing.