Watch as Aer Lingus flight into Belfast City forced to abandon landing during yellow wind warning

An Aer Lingus flight into Belfast City Airport was forced to abort a landing attempt on Sunday afternoon.

A video of the incident captured by Jacob Bushe shows the Aer Lingus Regional craft making its descent with the iconic H&W Samson & Goliath Cranes in the background at around 1.30pm.

In the footage sent to Belfast Live, the plane can then be seen aborting the landing attempt and pitching up amid strong winds. The craft then made its return to the airport and landed successfully at the second attempt at 1.57pm.

Read more: NI wind warning in place as over 100,000 remain without power after Storm Eowyn

The landing attempt came during a yellow warning issued by the UK Met Office for wind. The warning follows days of disruption and destruction wrought by Storm Eowyn on Friday. The storm on Friday prompted the first ever red warning issued by the Met Office for Northern Ireland.

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The flight tracking website FlightRadar shows that the aborted landing captured on video on Sunday wasn't the only such incident during the yellow wind warning.

According to FlightRadar, at 4.53pm an Aer Lingus plane from Birmingham aborted at Belfast City and at 4.58pm a British Airways City Flyer from London City also aborted. Both aircraft landed at the second attempt at Belfast City.

Thousands remain without power across Northern Ireland on Sunday, with additional engineers having been drafted from Britain to assist with efforts to repair the damage. The Met Office yellow alert warns that the disruption could be greater on Sunday due to the extent of the damage caused by Storm Eowyn. The yellow warning for wind remains in place until 7pm.

The aborted landing caught on camera on Sunday comes just weeks after investigators issued an update on an Aer Lingus plane that crash-landed at Belfast City Airport just before Christmas.

An ATR 72 plane, operated by Emerald Airlines for Aer Lingus, suffered an emergency incident at around 4pm on Sunday, December 22, as it attempted to land in high winds.

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It appeared that the aircraft's nose wheel collapsed as it landed, and the plane remained on the runway while emergency crews dealt with the crash. Four crew and no passengers were on board at the time, and there were no reported injuries.

In a statement to Belfast Live earlier this month, a spokeswoman for the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said: "The aircraft has not been moved because it is due to undergo further examination work as part of the ongoing investigation."

It is understood that investigations of this nature by the AAIB could take between nine to 12 months to complete.

A spokesperson for Belfast City Airport referred a Belfast Live query about the aborted landing on Sunday to the airline. Aer Lingus has been approached for comment.

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