Problems at El Altet

One of BMIBaby's planes was forced to return to El Altet yesterday when the pilot detected a failure in one of the systems.

The plane set off at 14:52 for Manchester and returned to Alicante at 15:49. None of the passengers were injured and the plane made a normal landing. The airport activated its Plan de Emergencia. The passengers were safely put on a later flight at 19:25.

Meanwhile, El Altet has come under criticism from the neighbours Association of Urbanova who intend to present their complaints to Aena, the Spanish airports authority.

The Association says that certain planes do not follow the rules for night time flights, that planes fail to observe the entrance and exit corridors to the airport, that planes fly too close to the houses and give off too much pollution.

The two parties will meet in January next year to try and resolve the issues. Aena point out that they have already soundproofed 1,500 houses in the area next to the airport between Alicante and Elche.