Runway leak closes Dublin Airport

Hundreds of passengers were delayed and 12 flights diverted last night when Dublin Airport closed for over an hour following …

Hundreds of passengers were delayed and 12 flights diverted last night when Dublin Airport closed for over an hour following a fluid leak on the main runway.

The spillage occurred at 7.50 p.m. when a British Airway's plane (flight 8088) from London Gatwick leaked hydraulic fluid on the main runway and taxiways, according to a spokeswoman for Dublin Airport. The aircraft and passengers were safe, however, the main runway and some taxiways were disabled due to the fluid leak, she said.

"Emergency fire crew attended the scene immediately and a full and thorough clean up operation was launched," she said.

The airport "always takes anything of this nature very seriously," she added.

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As a result, the airport was closed for one hour and 10 minutes last night. Some 12 incoming flights were diverted and all outgoing flights were delayed. The airport reopened at 9 p.m. According to the spokeswoman, the incident occurred at a time that was not "a hugely busy time for the airport" which she said had been "winding down" at the time.

"One hour closure is not a huge delay to catch up on," she said. Outgoing flights would be delayed by between 30 minutes and an hour, she said last night, but insisted that all flights would go out. However, she confirmed that hundreds of passengers were affected by the incident. Two Aer Arann flights, one from Galway and one from Cork, were diverted to the Isle of Man. Five Ryanair flights, from Blackpool, Stansted, Birmingham, Luton and Leeds, were diverted to Shannon.

One Skyservice flight from Moscow via Shannon was sent back to Shannon and four Aer Lingus flights, from Prague, Heathrow, Glasgow and Frankfurt were also diverted to Shannon. The diverted flights were due to come back last night.