A plane spotter could hardly believe what he was witnessing when an Aer Lingus flight landed heavily on Sunday at Belfast City Airport — skidding down the runway in a shower of sparks.

Emergency services rushed to the scene of a hard landing of an Aer Lingus plane at Belfast City Airport on Sunday. The landing gear on the twin-engine turboprop short haul craft appeared to have failed,

Runway closed and several flights redirected on Sunday after aircraft suffered a collapsed nose wheel on landing

Belfast City Airport has reopened to flights on Monday, a day after its runway closed when a plane was damaged in a "hard landing ", but some delays are expected. The Aer Lingus aircraft had to be recovered from the runway after the emergency incident which began at about 16:00 GMT on Sunday.

Emergency services have raced to a major incident which has closed a runway at Belfast City Airport. BelfastLive reports images from the scene appear to show fire crews on the runway dealing with an incident involving an Aer Lingus aircraft.