Our pilot’s a hero! Gatwick passengers applaud after emergency landing

Relieved passengers broke into applause after a pilot performed a dramatic emergency landing at Gatwick.

The British Airways service from Naples touched down at 12.34am having suffered a hydraulic fluid leak.

An emergency was declared before landing and when it did the Airbus A320 was immediately surrounded by fire engines before being towed down the tarmac.

Fluid spilled onto the main runway and eight later arrivals had to be diverted to other airports. More flights were cancelled this morning, adding to travel disruption as the great summer getaway begins.

Israeli model Hofit Golan, a friend of Cara Delevingne and Kendall Jenner, was on Flight BA2605 and tweeted a video of the captain calmly thanking passengers.

He told them: “I didn’t want to put you through this … but I want to thank you for your patience and understanding.”

The smiling passengers give him a round of applause. Ms Golan wrote: “Our pilot was a hero! We had an emergency landing but made it safe. Thank you British Airways and Gatwick for getting us on the ground safely. Life is so fragile, blessed to be home safe.”

The plane was carrying groups of pupils, including students returning from Pompeii. William Allitt secondary school in Derbyshire used Twitter to update worried parents.

Parent Paul Shipley retweeted a flight-tracking image of the plane on the runway, adding: “Jeanette, making a bit of a grand entrance back into the UK! I have spoken to her … all pupils and colleagues are unharmed.” Gatwick’s stand-by runway was opened but four flights were diverted to Birmingham, two to Stansted and two to Luton.

Student Daisy Stockton, 19, was diverted to Birmingham on a flight from Cairo and said: “God it was an absolute nightmare. When we got to Birmingham, there was little information and we had to wait for our bags for two hours and then got told there weren’t enough coaches to take people to Gatwick.

“In the end we got the train to Euston at £40 each and made our way home from there. We were meant to land at Gatwick at 1am but were still waiting for our bags in Birmingham at 5am.”

A Gatwick spokeswoman said: “Due to a landing with a technical issue and causing a fluid spill on our main runway, some flights were diverted away from Gatwick. Unfortunately the knock-on impact has seen a small number of flights cancelled this morning due to aircraft being displaced.” This weekend more than half a million passengers are expected to depart from Heathrow, 250,000 from Gatwick, 148,000 from Stansted and 88,000 from Luton.