Birmingham Airport shut down over 'incident' as flights put on hold

All flights are currently on hold at Birmingham Airport following an 'incident with a light aircraft' on the runway, it has been reported.

A number of planes have been diverted from the West Midlands airport, while others have been delayed significantly. At 2.48pm, Birmingham Airport's official Twitter account announced that its runway was closed.

An unconfirmed picture from the scene shows a white light-aircraft on a runway surrounded by emergency vehicles. Passengers should check with their airline before traveling.The unfolding incident at Birmingham comes after a union in Spain announced its Ryanair workers would strike at 12 airports in the coming weeks.

READ MORE: Common items you're not allowed in hand luggage — and they're not even liquids

READ MORE: Spain holidays warning for Ryanair passengers as strikes set to hit 12 major airports

Are you at Birmingham Airport? Please get in touch on webtravel@reachplc.com

Birmingham Airport has said in a statement: “Following an aircraft incident, the runway is temporarily closed. We apologise for the inconvenience this will cause. We will keep passengers already at the airport informed, and those due to travel later today are advised to check the status of their flight before coming to the airport. We will continue to issue updates when we can."

The closure of the runway has had an immediate impact on flights late into Wednesday evening, despite airport officials giving no indication of when things will begin moving again.

One of two daily Emirates flights to Birmingham appears to be delayed by around four hours. Two Jet2 flights due to land this afternoon, one from Faro and one from Lanzarote, have been diverted to Manchester.

Flightradar24 lists multiple Ryanair, easyJet and TUI flights as being delayed.

According to the Twitter account Aerospace Updates - which tracks flights across the UK - the incident seems to have involved a a 44-year-old Beech B200 Super King Air registered G-NIAA. "It was meant to be flying to Belfast before declaring emergency via Squawk 7700," the account claimed.

Birmingham Airport has been contacted for additional comment.

This is a breaking news story. We will update this story as more information comes in.