Heathrow flights diverted after runway is blocked

United's flight from Washington DC and BA's service from Belfast landed at Gatwick, while other planes diverted to Stansted

Hold tight: the circuits flown by United Airlines flight 924 from Washington DC before it landed at Gatwick (FlightRadar24)

A United Airlines jet approaching Heathrow declared an emergency and diverted to Gatwick after flights at Heathrow were disrupted.

Flight UA924 from Washington DC to Heathrow was forced to fly a holding pattern northwest of London for at around 20 minutes because of an incident at the airport.

With fuel nearing the minimum safe limit, it diverted to Gatwick airport. The Boeing 767 landed safely just before 10.30am.

A Heathrow spokesperson said: “For a matter of minutes one of the runways was out of service as an aircraft was towed from the taxiway.”

With dozens of aircraft “stacking”, several others diverted.

British Airways’ arrivals from Edinburgh and Brussels landed at Stansted, while a service from Belfast City touched down at Gatwick.

The airport spokesperson said: “Heathrow is now operating as normal.”

But operations at the world’s busiest two-runway airport are likely to be disrupted for some time. Besides the aircraft that landed at the wrong airports, many arrivals have been significantly delayed by the runway closure.

An IT failure at Heathrow on Sunday triggered the cancellation of dozens of flights.