An emergency incident is under way at Doncaster Sheffield Airport this afternoon after a 747 aircraft was reported to have skidded off the runway.
The Astral cargo planes is understood to have run onto grass at the airport this afternoon.
Pictures from the scene show fire crews in attendance and crew being evacuated from the damaged aircraft by ladders.
One Twitter user who witnessed the drama said: “The Astral 747 we saw has come off the runway nose gear embedded in the grass while backtracking.”
EXCLUSIVE: A Boeing 747-400 freighter operating for Astral Aviation (TF-AMU) rolled-off runway 20 at Doncaster-Sheffield airport approximately two hours ago. None of the occupants were reported injured, and the airport is to remain closed through to 06:00BST tomorrow morning pic.twitter.com/GAnQrU9Bdy
— Toby’s Aviation (@TobysAviation) July 14, 2020
Astral Aviation is a cargo airline based in Nairobi, Kenya.
It was established in November 2000 and started operations in January 2001 and operates cargo flights to regional destinations in Africa and to Liege in Belgium.
@hurricane_wyatt the astral #747 we saw has come off the runway nose gear embedded in the grass ehile backtracking #fr24 #airports #doncaster #worksop pic.twitter.com/r6VwRjBPFk
— 🔰Daniel🔰 (@djhancock1980) July 14, 2020
Its main base is Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi with Doncaster and London Stansted Airport among its UK destinations.
We have contacted Doncaster Sheffield Airport for more information. More information yet to come..
