Ryanair flight forced to make emergency landing at Liverpool Airport

A plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Liverpool amid the chaos of Storm Pia on Thursday. The Ryanair flight from Brussels to Manchester was forced to declare an emergency and land at Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

The Boeing 737-800 jet had been on the approach to Manchester Airport, when air traffic control asked it to enter a holding pattern (a flight path maintained by an aircraft waiting for permission to land). Traffic into the airport was being regulated due to the weather conditions and strong winds.

However, 40 minutes later as they were still waiting to land pilots declared a general emergency due to low fuel and diverted to Liverpool Airport, where it landed 10 minutes later.

The plane was one of a number of flights diverted to Liverpool and other nearby airports due to the weather issues in Manchester, as strong winds from Storm Pia battered the northwest.

Sharing an update on Thursday morning, a spokesperson for Liverpool Airport said: "We have taken a couple of flights this morning which have been diverted here due to weather issues at Manchester. Flights are otherwise operating as per normal for us still at present."

Storm Pia brought with it a large amount of disruption. In Liverpool Mersey Ferries was forced to cancel all of its services on Thursday, with the Liverpool Christmas Market put on hold and a number of Merseyrail lines delayed or cancelled throughout the day.

Parts of the region also suffered flooding, with motorists in Wirral forced to drive through flooded roads. Though a yellow weather warning has expired, strong winds and some rain is expected to batter Liverpool throughout the day.