BA jet stuck in Antigua after sinking into runway

Hundreds of passengers were stranded in the Caribbean after a British Airways jet became stuck in newly laid asphalt at Antigua airport.

The Boeing 777, which left Gatwick on Wednesday with 140 passengers on board, was turning left from the taxi-way on to the main runway in preparation for take-off for the 45-minute flight to its final destination of St Lucia when the wheels under the right-hand wing sank more than six inches into the soft surface.

A British Airways spokesman said: "The pilot had the choice of trying to accelerate out of the hole, and possibly digging it in deeper, or calling for assistance to get the plane out. He chose the latter, but initially they could find nothing on the island that was capable of pulling the 250-tonne aircraft free."

Eventually a heavy-duty truck was found to be up to the job, and after a five-hour struggle the plane was hauled out of the asphalt.

About 140 passengers on a BWIA West Indies Airways flight to Heathrow were also delayed by the incident, as were about 400 tourists booked on to a Virgin Atlantic flight to Gatwick who had gone through check-in and security before the incident occurred.

Earlier, as the authorities attempted to pull the plane free with various items of heavy equipment, Bob Bone, of west London, who was booked on the Virgin flight, had said: "The situation is unfortunate. The passengers on the BWIA and BA flights are stranded, and the airports have told them that it is not their problem."

The marooned tourists were booked into local hotels, and steel bands were drafted in to keep them entertained. After a free dinner, a night's accommodation and a breakfast, the passengers were allowed back on to the three aircraft and the flights continued.

A British Airways spokesman said: "Workmen had been carrying out some work on a section of the runway overnight. The plane was taxiing slowly before take-off when its landing gear became stuck. We're not sure at this stage why it happened – it may be that the Tarmac had not dried out properly. The passengers were able to get off normally."

The plane, flight number 2179, had left Gatwick airport at 11.04am on Wednesday and had landed as scheduled at Antigua at 7.45pm local time, where a number of passengers had alighted.