9 planes declare emergencies as runway is blocked at London Gatwick

At least nine passenger planes declared low-fuel emergencies and diverted to other airports after an emergency response left the runway unavailable at London’s Gatwick Airport, according to flight tracking data.

The disruption began late Tuesday after British Airways Flight 2673 arrived from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, according to AirNav Radar. The Airbus A320 had been scheduled to land at 11:50 p.m., but an emergency response kept the aircraft on the runway.

It was not immediately clear what led to the emergency response involving the British Airways flight.

Multiple arriving planes were forced to remain in holding patterns until their fuel levels became low enough for the crews to declare emergencies, according to Flight Emergency. The reason for the emergency declarations has not been officially confirmed.

The affected aircraft were easyJet flights U28704 from Agadir, U28012 from Valencia, U28042 from Fuerteventura, U28186 from Athens and U28330 from Rome; British Airways flights BA2607 from Bari and BA2703 from Tenerife; Jet2 flight LS3104 from Lanzarote; and TUI Airways flight BY4249 from Rhodes.

The nine flights were diverted to other airports, including London Luton and London Stansted, where tracking data appeared to show they landed successfully. Additional flights were being diverted to airports across the region without declaring emergencies.