Birmingham Airport reopens after suspending flights because of ‘suspicious item’

Birmingham Airport has reopened after suspending all takeoffs and landings

Birmingham Airport has reopened after suspending all takeoffs and landings when a suspicious item was reportedly found aboard an Aer Lingus flight.

An aircraft from the Irish airline took off from the airport on a scheduled flight to Belfast on Tuesday afternoon but then returned to Birmingham, data from Flight Radar 24 says.

Unconfirmed reports suggested a suspicious item may have been found on board, but an Aer Lingus spokesman said: “We can confirm that an undeclared item discovered on Aer Lingus Regional flight EI3647, operated by Emerald Airlines, from Birmingham to Belfast today was not a security risk.

“Our teams are currently working to accommodate impacted passengers.”.

The flight, which appeared to be EI3647, had been scheduled to depart at 3.10pm but took off after a delay of around 40 minutes. It returned to Birmingham just over an hour later, landing at 4.25pm.

A Birmingham Airport spokesman said the airport had “temporarily suspended operations due to a security incident on an aircraft”.

Live footage from the scene suggested that the aircraft, an ATR-72 regional turboprop airliner with 72 seats, was parked at a remote corner of the airfield.

The airliner was later moved back to the terminal after officials declared it was safe.

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