American Airlines New York to Birmingham flight makes emergency landing in Canada
A flight carrying almost 150 passengers from New York to Birmingham was forced to make an emergency landing after the cabin was plunged into darkness.
The American Airlines flight AA130 from New York JFK, which was carrying 148 passengers, was due to arrive in Birmingham at 6.55am today.
But it was diverted to Canada, where it landed at 11.45pm local time on Monday (3.15am UK time on Monday).
Express & Star acting head of news, Elizabeth Joyce, who was one of the passengers on the flight, said: "All of the lights suddenly went off in the cabin and the pilot came on the PA system saying the generator and its back-up system had failed and we had to make an emergency landing in Canada.
"It took another hour to make it to Gander though, which was a little frightening but everyone stayed calm. When we landed, there were emergency services waiting for us on the runway with their lights flashing.
"Ever since then, it's been a case of 'hurry up and wait'. We were in the airport for five hours afterwards and now we're all spread out across three hotels. They say we will leave at 8.30pm but who knows?"
In a statement, the airline said: "American Airlines Flight 130 travelling from New York John F. Kennedy Airport to Birmingham International Airport, UK diverted to Gander, Newfoundland due to the cockpit crew reporting a mechanical issue. An emergency landing was declared due to the aircraft being overweight, landing without incident at 23.45 local time.
"We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience."
The flight landed in Birmingham at 5.02am this morning.
The airline said declaring an emergency is standard procedure with an overweight landing.
An overweight landing occurs when there is a large amount of fuel onboard an aircraft scheduled for a long-haul flight, but the aircraft has to turn back early in its journey.
