The Boeing 787 aircraft, which was carrying more than 300 passengers, had attempted to land at two other airports first, but failed due to high winds

A TUI plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Birmingham when it came within 20 minutes of running out of fuel.

The Boeing 787 aircraft, which was carrying more than 300 passengers, had attempted to land at two other airports first, but failed due to high winds.

By the time it hit the runway in Solihull, the plane was 35 per cent under the recommended final reserve fuel limit, the Mirror reports.

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The plane reached Birmingham Airport with minutes to spare as the pilot decided to load extra fuel before take off, having studied the weather forecast.

Flight TOM173 took off from Cancun, Mexico, at 5.50pm local time on December 20, 2023, with the overnight flight due to land in Manchester at 7.35am.

The crew had been told there were strong winds in England, but believed the gales would dissipate at around 6am, prior to arrival.

Despite this, an additional 2,170lbs of fuel was loaded as a precaution, the equivalent to around 15 minutes of flying.

Manchester Air Traffic Control was contacted at 7.18am, when the pilot was told to circle above the airport, behind seven planes already waiting.

A landing time could not be given due to the windspeed being around 32mph, with gusts of up to 47mph.

The pilot called East Midlands Radar at 7. 28am to say the plane may need to divert there, but was told, just three minutes later, that the airport could not ‘accept your size aircraft’.

The plane’s diversion to Birmingham was accepted at 7.41am – six minutes after the scheduled landing time – but it only had around one hour of fuel left onboard.

Making initial contact with radar, the pilot said: “We are gonna be on minimum fuel.”

The plane was cleared to land at 8.05am but the descent was abandoned due to 43mph gusts of wind.

The crew contacted Birmingham radar during the climb out, saying ‘TOM173 MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY, TOM173 MAYDAY FUEL’.

Instructions were given to climb to 4,000ft before coming in to land, with the plane arriving at at 8.26am with 2,750lbs of fuel – the equivalent to around 20 minutes of flight time.

The flight lasted for nine hours and 36 minutes instead of the intended eight hours and 45 minutes, and there were 301 people on board, 10 of whom were crew.

An Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) report into the incident found that the air traffic controller at Birmingham should have prioritised the flight sooner.

The opportunity to prioritise TOM173 while repositioning a Whizz Air plane was missed due to the controller facing a ‘complex and high workload scenario’, the investigation concluded.

TOM173 then flew an extended track, despite declaring a fuel emergency, the report stated.

“While allowing for the contingencies required by the regulations, operators seek to minimise the carriage of fuel necessary for the flight, owing to the fuel burn penalty from carrying excess fuel,” the AAIB report stated.

It concluded: “Nevertheless, the crew identified a threat of high winds and the potential for delays on arrival at MAN.(Manchester). Incorrectly believing that the winds would dissipate from 0600 hrs, the commander requested some extra fuel, equivalent to about an additional 15 minutes of fuel. Given the aircraft weights, the crew had the option to load significantly more fuel.

“The consequential reduction in fuel remaining had the effect of reducing the options available to achieve a safe landing, if the aircraft had encountered windshear on the second approach. The serious incident was the result of strong winds generating difficult conditions at the time of the arrival of the flight into the UK.

“Safety action has been taken to clarify the process for determining and communicating airport capacity for diversions, and for the prioritisation of aircraft that have declared an emergency.”