East Midlands Airport: Plane inspected after flash of fire seen

An aircraft is being inspected after "a split second" of flames was captured by a nearby photographer.

A flicker of fire was seen coming from near the cargo plane's engine as it touched down at East Midlands Airport at about 16:00 BST on Thursday.

Photographer Tony Johnson, an aircraft enthusiast from Nottingham, said it happened in a "split second".

A spokesman for the airport said the airline was investigating reports of a technical issue.

Mr Johnson, 51, said he was lucky to have his camera on the right setting at the right time to capture the flames.

"As it touched down I was looking in the viewfinder in my camera and I saw a quick flash near the engine and I thought, 'what's that?'", he said.

"So I thought I'll check through my camera as it had gone past and luckily my camera had got it," he said.

He said he was too far away to hear anything and said there was no obvious smell of smoke afterwards.

An East Midlands Airport spokesman said: "A 747 cargo aircraft belonging to Kalitta Air is currently being inspected by the airline's engineers following reports that it developed a technical issue upon landing at East Midlands Airport (EMA) yesterday afternoon.

"The flight operated safely into EMA and no action was required from airport staff."

Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service said it was called to the airport but crews were stood down and it was dealt with by a crew on site.

A fire service spokesman said it had been caused by an issue with the aircraft's flaps.

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