The tow truck was photographed crushed under the plane's nose. Photo / @OxBlueBilly, Twitter
A plane had to be evacuated after it crashed into a tow truck at Manchester Airport on Saturday.
Photographs from the scene show the Vueling Airbus A320's nose pressed against the roof of the truck's cab.
Emergency services were called to the scene to help evacuate passengers from the aircraft, which was due to fly to Barcelona.
According to a witness who posted on Twitter about the incident, the plane was full of passengers when the crash occurred.
"My plane at Manchester Airport has just crashed in to a tow truck....expecting a long delay, probably effect [sic] other flights," he wrote.
Another passenger, Joshua Bedson, tweeted, "The tow vehicle had issues and the plane didn't stop when the tow stopped."
"The plane had a slice where the top of the tow vehicle actually went through the plane."
A spokesman for Vueling told MailOnline Travel that it appeared "a technical fault occurred whilst the tow truck was manoeuvring the aircraft, resulting in the tow truck backing into the aircraft.
"All the passengers were disembarked and an alternative plane was found shortly afterwards to take the passengers onto their destination.
"At this moment further details as to the cause are unknown but we are investigating the matter and the aircraft is being inspected by our maintenance teams."
A statement from Manchester Airport said the incident had not caused a delay in airport operations.
"All flights arrived and departed at their scheduled time.
"The passengers who were due to fly out this morning to Barcelona will be taken this afternoon on a replacement aircraft, which has now arrived at the airport."
An investigation is expected to be launched, but no injuries were reported.
- nzherald.co.nz
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