The passengers on a TUI flight from Exeter to the Canary Islands had a major scare yesterday (Thursday) when coming into land in Lanzarote, due to a problem with one of the flaps, as reported by Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) on X.
The flaps are located on the back half of an aircraft's wings and are used during take-off and landing to either ‘lift’ the plane off the ground, or help the pilot make manoeuvres more easily when the plane is flying lower and slower, and then are finally used on the ground during landing to slow the plane down.
ATC reported that once they had received notification of the problem from the pilot, they instructed the aircraft to wait to the west of Lanzarote while they diverted other planes and cleared the approach for landing.
“Once ready, we positioned flight BY6462 for a direct approach to runway 03, landing and clearing the runway without incident. When it had cleared the runway, it was inspected by firefighters in case an emergency disembarkation was needed,” the report concludes.
