TUI flight to Manchester Airport within 20 minutes of running out of fuel as it issues 'MAY DAY' call

A TUI flight carrying over 300 passengers came within 20 minutes of running out of fuel after failing to land at Manchester Airport due to high winds.

The Boeing 787 plane reached Birmingham Airport with just minutes to spare after the pilot decided to load extra fuel before take off having studied the weather forecast, according to a new report.

The aircraft was 35 per cent under the recommended final reserve fuel limit by the time it touched down following the flight from Mexico.

The passenger plane, flight number TOM173, took off from Cancun at 5.50pm local time on December 20, 2023, for an overnight flight to Manchester. The crew were informed of strong winds in England but believed they would dissipate at around 6am, with the aircraft due to land at 7.35am.

Nonetheless, they elected to load an additional 2,170lbs of fuel as a precaution, equivalent to around 15 minutes of flying, the Mirror reports. They first contacted Manchester Air Traffic Control at 7.18am where they were told to circle above the airport, behind seven planes already waiting.

The controller told the pilot that it was not possible to provide a landing time since the delay was unknown. The wind speed was around 32mph, with gusts of up to 47mph.

At 7.28am the pilot called East Midlands Radar advising that they may need to divert there, but three minutes later they were told 'we cannot accept your size aircraft'.

At 7.41am - six minutes after their scheduled landing time - the plane's diversion to Birmingham Airport was accepted but it only had around one hour of fuel left onboard. On first contact with radar, the pilot said: "We are gonna be on minimum fuel".

At 8.05am the plane was cleared to land and started to descend but had to abandon the