Fuel leak forces holiday plane to turn back
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Your support makes all the difference.A UK-bound holiday flight had to turn back shortly after take-off when fuel leaked from the plane, it was revealed today.
The leak was clearly seen by some of the 231 passengers aboard a Birmingham-bound Thomas Cook Boeing 757 which safely returned to Turin airport in Italy.
One passenger told the Daily Mail's website: "The leak was immediately evident to those people sitting on the right-hand side and so there was an immediate wave of alarm through the plane.
"The pilot immediately came on the tannoy and explained what was going on but some people were worried that because of the amount of fuel leaking there wasn't enough to get back to Turin.
"In the end the plane landed safely and the pilot and crew were fantastic. There was a big cheer and a round of applause from everyone once we were back on the ground."
Passengers on board were put up in a hotel overnight while engineers flew out to Turin from Birmingham to fix the problem.
The runway had to close for two hours while it was cleaned of the fuel and several incoming flights, including another Thomas Cook flight from Manchester, were diverted to Milan airport.
A Thomas Cook spokesman said: "The problem was a faulty valve. The plane landed safely at Birmingham this morning."
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