Dramatic fault jet on Gatwick Airport runway suffered seconds before take off causing flights to be grounded revealed

ALL flights at the UK’s second biggest airport were grounded yesterday after a passenger jet suffered a technical fault at 138mph — seconds before take-off. Passengers faced chaos after the aborted departure of a Norse Atlantic Airways flight from Gatwick to New York closed the runway. Grounded flights at Gatwick after an emergency closed the runway Credit: LNP Flights to London Gatwick were delayed or diverted, according to tracking sites Credit: AirNav radar Fire engines and emergency crews raced to the scene after the issue with nose wheels on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner that can take up to 338 travellers. Alice Kavanagh, 30, who was on the stricken flight said: “The whole situation was pretty scary. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! “We were starting to speed off for take-off and all of a sudden, the pilot slammed the brakes on. “They spotted a technical fault. “It’s so lucky the pilot spotted it — God knows what would happen if we’d taken off.” The terrifying incident meant the runway had to be shut for 50 minutes just after 1pm. Thousands of passengers faced disruption as around 20 flights due to land were diverted — with knock-on delays all day. Gatwick has two runways but they are too close to be in use together. Most read in The Sun An airport spokesman confirmed the plane had to be “towed away” and said the runway reopened “after a full safety inspection”. It is the latest issue to affect Gatwick after passengers were left without running water in July. The Sun revealed how flyers were unable to flush toilets, wash their hands or refill water bottles for hours due to the outage. Comment now