Emergency landing

SHETLAND coastguard was placed on alert after a full emergency was called at Kirkwall airport on Thursday afternoon when the pilot shut down an engine on a Flybe/Loganair flight to Inverness with 32 passengers on board.

Shortly after the Saab340 had taken off from Kirkwall at around 4.40pm, the pilot aborted the flight after a warning light came on in the cockpit.

A Loganair spokesman explained: “Shortly after take off the captain shut down one of the aircraft’s two engines as a precautionary measure following a warning signal on the flight deck.”

The aircraft returned to Orkney and landed safely just after 5pm, while the passengers had to wait another two and a half hours before a replacement aircraft could fly them to Inverness.

Scottish MEP Catherine Stihler was on board the flight which flew from Sumburgh to Kirkwall before the problem started. She described the experience on her Twitter feed as “very, very scary”.

Loganair has been beset by technical problems for the past few months, and has pledged to improve its performance.

This week the company was hauled over the coals at the Shetland external transport forum after it emerged that a quarter of its flights this year had been delayed.