A single stuck aircraft brought chaos to Gatwick’s skies in the early hours of Wednesday morning, forcing nine inbound flights to declare fuel emergencies and 14 to divert away from the airport altogether.
The trouble started when a British Airways A320 flying in from Palma de Mallorca suffered a nose wheel steering fault as it came in to land. The plane became stuck on Gatwick’s northern runway, which was only in use that night because the main southern runway was closed for scheduled overnight works. With no backup runway available, a queue of flights already circling overhead had nowhere to land.
As the wait dragged on, nine aircraft, a mix of British Airways, easyJet, Jet2 and TUI flights coming from destinations including Tenerife, Lanzarote, Rhodes and Bari, squawked the internationally recognised 7700 emergency code, signalling they urgently needed to land somewhere, anywhere, before running critically low on fuel. In total, 14 flights were diverted, with planes sent to Luton, Stansted, Birmingham, Bristol and Heathrow. One easyJet flight that landed at Stansted then got stuck there too, with no ground crew available to handle the unscheduled arrival.
The stranded British Airways jet blocked the runway for around 29 minutes before being cleared, allowing Gatwick to reopen and the majority of diverted flights to eventually make their way back. West Sussex Fire & Rescue confirmed crews were sent to the scene as a precaution, though the aircraft ultimately landed safely with no injuries reported.
A Gatwick spokesperson said the runway had been closed briefly due to a technical issue with an aircraft, adding that safety and security remained the airport’s number one priority.
For anyone working airport pickups and drop-offs that night, it’s a reminder of just how quickly a single technical fault at one of the world’s busiest single-runway airports can ripple out into hours of disruption for passengers and drivers alike.
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