Belfast City Airport shut after emergency during landing

Belfast City Airport's runway remains closed to all flights after an Aer Lingus plane suffered an emergency incident while landing during strong winds.

It appears its nose wheel collapsed when it landed at about 16:00 GMT, with pictures showing its nose resting on the runway tarmac.

It had flown from Edinburgh to Belfast with four crew but no passengers on board.

The crew were assessed at the scene by the emergency services as a precaution, but there were no reported injuries.

Almost 40 flights in and out of Belfast City Airport were disrupted as a result of the emergency - some were cancelled and the rest were diverted to other airports.

The runway is not expected to reopen until Monday.

The emergency incident happened to what was described as a "positioning flight", which was operated by Emerald Airlines on behalf of Aer Lingus.

Emerald Airlines said the aircraft "experienced a hard landing upon arriving into Belfast City Airport due to adverse weather conditions".

Strong winds had been forecast for Northern Ireland on Sunday and the Met Office had warned of disruption to road, rail, air, and ferry transport.

When the plane landed the police, fire service and ambulance crews were immediately deployed to the airport.

Fire Service Area Commander David Doherty said firefighters responded at 16:15 GMT after the airport "declared a full emergency".

They sent several units as part of their expected response to an airport emergency, but he said firefighters did not have to take any immediate action.

Their resources were quickly redeployed but some crews remained at the scene as a precaution, Mr Doherty added.

Belfast City Airport told passengers not to travel to the airport on Sunday evening, informing them that the runway would "remain closed for the rest of the day".

It advised affected passengers to contact their airline.

BBC News NI asked the airport's spokesperson what advice they had for passengers who are due to travel to or from Belfast City Airport on Monday morning.

In a short statement, they replied: "All further updates and advice for passengers will be shared on our website and social media."

Earlier, at least four planes were diverted to Belfast International Airport, including flights from London City and Leeds Bradford.

Belfast International Airport posted on social media just before 18:30 that it was "close to capacity" because of those diversions and its already heavier than usual schedule.

It warned it was "limited in how many redirected flights we can take this evening".

A further five flights were diverted to Dublin Airport.

The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) is also assisting Belfast City Airport with the process of moving the damaged plane, according to the DAA's media relations manager Graeme McQueen.

He told BBC News NI that "members of Dublin Airport's airfield operations team are currently travelling to Belfast with aircraft recovery equipment".

"We are happy to help our neighbouring airport," he added.

The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) confirmed it has been notified of the emergency incident in Belfast.

Its spokesperson said: "An investigation has been launched and a team of inspectors is being deployed to the site."