A passenger jet from Saudi Arabia was forced to circle over Manchester Airport for four hours to burn off fuel before landing due to a technical hitch.
Saudia flight SV123 from Jeddah to Manchester was due to land at 8.30am on Thursday but developed a problem with the wing flaps.
The Boeing Dreamliner 787 900 took off from Jeddah at 4.11am on Friday and spent around four hours in the skies above Manchester before finally landing at around 12.30pm.
UPDATE Manchester airport is informing runway 23L is now dry, Saudia #SV123 is circling since 3 hours https://t.co/Ujl9thvCIj pic.twitter.com/LCBoACJjGr
— AIRLIVE (@airlivenet) July 20, 2017
Flight monitoring websites showed radar images of the plane flying huge circular loops south-east of the airport, over the Peak District and as far away as Nottingham before turning back again.
A spokesman for Saudia confirmed there was a problem with the plane’s flaps and it was flying to burn off fuel before landing.
He declined to say how many passengers were on board, but added: “This sort of thing happens from time to time.”
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