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Plane passengers 'terrified and in tears' after 'tail strikes runway' during takeoff

Plane passengers 'terrified and in tears' after 'tail strikes runway' during takeoff
The plane returned to Birmingham for an emergency landing and stayed on the ground for three hours (Image: BirminghamLive/ WS)

Plane passengers were left "crying and fearing for their lives" after an incident during takeoff at Birmingham Airport yesterday.

Holiday-makers began to panic as a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul was allegedly grounded shortly after leaving the runway on Saturday.

The Boeing 737 took off around 10.30am - but was forced to land again when a gust of wind from Storm Hannah reportedly caused the tail to strike the ground.

A passenger claims the plane "rapidly descended" around 15 minutes after take off - sparking fear onboard.

An image captures Birmingham Airport's own Fire and Rescue service outside the plane allegedly taken after it was landed.

Plane passengers 'terrified and in tears' after 'tail strikes runway' during takeoff
Passengers were 'terrified and in tears' after 'tail strike' during a takeoff at Birmingham Airport (Image: BirminghamLive/ WS)

Trevor Ren said the flight was forced to make an emergency landing and passengers made to wait three hours while the aircraft was checked over.

He told the Birmingham Mail : "Our plane took off from Birmingham 10:30am, after 15 minutes we came out below the clouds with no information of what was going on.

"I could tell we are rapidly descending, at this point people were getting worried. We emergency landed back in Birmingham surrounded by fire engines and other vehicles, escorted to a secluded place, still no info of what was happening.

"Fire engine used robotic arm, fire crew then eased towards plane, we were then sat there for 3 hours with little info.

"Anyway 3 hours later we get the green light that all is ok from the technician, we start to taxi towards runway, and pilot turns back as I don’t think he was 100% satisfied.

"Anyway after another 20 minutes technician says all good to go!

Plane passengers 'terrified and in tears' after 'tail strikes runway' during takeoff
Even when the plane took off again, the pilot reportedly did not sound too confident in his tone of voice - but they made it safely to Istanbul (Image: BirminghamLive/ WS)

"We take off to which sounds a very rattled plane. When we come to land in Istanbul, we land on the runway and again surrounded by multiple fire engines and they shut the runway.

"They then bring buses and stairs to get us off plane there as I don’t think they wanted to move the plane. Surely we should have never set off again is there was an issue with the plane?"

Another passenger on the plane told how he had been delayed for three hours after an incident.

Twitter user, Ishy, said: "Plane landed back in Birmingham after 15 minutes taking off delayed for 3hrs while passengers were still on the plane whilst fixing.

"Once landed at Istanbul as seen by the footage there was an issue with the plane. There was people crying and pretty scared of what was going on!"

Birmingham Airport refused to provide a statement, simply saying: "Latest update I had was that everything was fine, business as usual."

Turkish Airlines has been repeatedly approached for comment.