Plane lands safely after Shetland emergency

A plane landed safely at an island airport after declaring a full emergency, which sparked firefighters to scramble.

The Eastern Airways plane was carrying around 30 passengers and landed at Sumburgh Airport on Shetland around 5.30pm yesterday.

The pilot made an emergency call on the approach to the airport and police, fire and coastguard agencies were scrambled to the runway.

The cause of the emergency call is not yet known but the plane landed safely and the emergency services were stood down.

A spokeswoman for the coastguard said: “An inbound plane to Sumburgh declared a full emergency and we quickly sent the helicopter and lifeboat teams to the scene as is the usual process, but they were stood down on route.

“The plane landed safely and everyone was got off safely and they are now checking the aircraft to find out exactly what the problem was.”