Passengers forced to abandon Norwegian Air plane after it 'crashes into FENCE at Gatwick Airport'
12 August 2019, 12:50 | Updated: 12 August 2019, 12:53
A Norwegian Air aircraft has been damaged after crashing into a fence at Gatwick Airport.
A plane has allegedly crashed into a fence at Gatwick Airport today which forced holidaymakers to abandon their flight to New York JFK.
Passengers on the Norwegian Air aircraft were ready to take off when it was reportedly pushed into the noise mitigation barrier.
The 787 Dreamliner was damaged by the accident and emergency services were called to the scene.
Taking to Twitter, one shocked passenger shared a photo of the incident, confirming that fire crews had arrived.
He said: "Tug pushes Norwegian 787 dreamliner back to far that it hits part of Gatwick Airport perimeter fence.
"Fire crews on precorsionary [sic] standby."
Tug pushes Norwegian 787 dreamliner back to far that it hits part of Gatwick Airport perimeter fence. Fire crews on precorsionary standby. #news #aircraft #boeing @DailyMailUK @BBCLondonNews pic.twitter.com/t5RiwqZGWk
— Jason Rushworth (@JasonRushworth1) August 12, 2019
A Norwegian Air spokesperson has since told us at Heart.co.uk: "We can confirm that one of our aircraft sustained some damage upon pushback on today’s flight DI7017 from London Gatwick to New York JFK.
"All passengers disembarked the aircraft as normal and are currently being assisted by our ground staff in the terminal.
"The safety and wellbeing of our customers is our top priority and we are currently making arrangements to put passengers on a replacement aircraft that will depart this afternoon.
"We would like to apologise to our customers for the inconvenience."
This comes after strikes at the London airport threatened to cause travel chaos over the weekend.
However, Brit holidaymakers were relieved when Gatwick suspended the industrial action.
Over 130 security workers set to walk out because of a row over poverty pay, but Unite said on Friday that a dramatically improved pay offer was made in talks, which is now being voted on by its members.
This means that the strikes which were due to start at 6am on Saturday August 10 and last until 6am on Monday August 12, were suspended.
