Jet panic as fuel pours from wing

Hundreds of British passengers forced their flight to be grounded after they spotted fuel pouring from a wing during take-off.

Holidaymakers screamed, refused to sit down and demanded the pilot stop the flight as the aircraft sped along a runway in the United Arab Emirates.

After a three-hour wait on the runway while engineers attempted to repair the leak, they forced the pilot to abandon a second attempt at taking off when they saw fuel was still spilling out.

The drama took place early yesterday as the Phuket Air flight from Bangkok to Gatwick stopped to refuel at Sharjah. Hundreds of passengers were stranded at the airport when they refused to reboard the plane.

Jane Shackleton, 68, from Freshwater, Isle of Wight, was returning from a holiday in Phuket. She said: "It was terrifying. Everyone was on their feet shouting and screaming for the plane to stop after a man next to the window started yelling that fuel was pouring down from the wing over the engine pod. We were all thinking about the Concorde crash a few years ago."

Mrs Shackleton was travelling with her daughter, soninlaw and their three children, aged four, 11 and 12, and a 16-year-old niece. Her soninlaw, Dr Peter Hill, 46, also from the Isle of Wight, said: "There is no way I will allow my wife and three children to board that plane again. They are just too frightened."

Mrs Shackleton telephoned her son Richard in London shortly after the aborted takeoffs. Today Mr Shackleton said: "It sounded like complete and utter ghastly panic as a man leapt up from his seat yelling there was fuel everywhere when the plane was beginning to accelerate.

"There is some confusion. The airport was saying the plane will be fixed overnight and be made available for take-off first thing this morning but a large number of passengers are refusingto get on it because the children are deeply upset."

Mr Shackleton said that his mother and family were among about 30 passengers who found an alternative flight home through travel agent Kuoni, and they were due to arrive at Gatwick early today.

Mr Shackleton, who praised the travel agent's efforts, added: "It's the people left behind I feel sorry for because it's everyone for themselves."

A Foreign Office spokesman said arrangements were being made for passengers to continue their onward flight. Phuket Air was not available for comment.