Manchester Uk Airport

Plane crases into houses in Salford

Residents of a quiet Salford suburb had a lucky escape when a light aircraft crashed into two houses, badly injuring the pilot and his passenger but causing no other injuries.

The plane came down within quarter of a mile of one of northern England's busiest motorways, the M62, at Peel Green, Greater Manchester .

A fleet of emergency vehicles cordoned off Newlands Avenue, where debris was scattered around the houses on the approach to Barton airfield, a centre for light aircraft and club flying.

Local residents said the top floors of the two houses were demolished when the plane slewed over them, after which it crashed with a noise like an explosion. Ambulance staff evacuated shaken but unhurt residents from at least one of the properties.

The two men on board the aircraft suffered serious burns and were taken to Wythenshawe hospital by air ambulance. A spokeswoman for the ambulance service said: "A man in his late 50s had 70% burns and a man aged 21 had 60% burns. We have had no reports of other casualties."

Six hazardous area response vehicles were sent to seal off the scene with a rapid response car, two ambulances and six fire engines. The A57 from Salford to Liverpool has been closed in both directions, with diversions in place.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester police said: "Officers attended and discovered a light aircraft had come down and collided with two properties."

The crash site is 300 metres from the edge of Barton airfield, Manchester's original airport which served the city until 1938 when services transferred to the bigger site at Ringway. Barton was developed by a local flying enthusiast, John Leeming, celebrated for his landing in 1926 on the Lake District summit of Helvellyn, the third-highest mountain in England.

Two sections of runway are out of action while resurfacing is carried out at a junction between two flight approaches. The airport was sold in 2003 by Manchester city council to Peel Holdings whose airport portfolio includes Liverpool John Lennon and Doncaster Robin Hood.

Barton has a good safety record but made headlines in 1996 when the last operational De Havilland Mosquito, a celebrated wartime RAF fighter-bomber, crashed after the annual air show with the loss of both crew.

Manchester Airport Cheapest in the UK

15 Of the UK's international airports have been ranked according to affordability by travel website cheapflights.co.uk, Manchester International Airport coming top for value for money.

The list was compiled by looking at five of the most popular summer destinations for 2011 and comparing the costs of flights to them. Flights to New York, Malaga, Dubai, Bangkok and Faro were used to compare airport prices from the UK's main London airports, as well as a range of regional sites such as Birmingham and Newcastle airports.

With Manchester International taking first place, Birmingham was found to the have second-lowest prices on flights to Dubai and the other four destinations. Third place was given to Heathrow airport, while Scotland's Edinburgh airport came in as the fourth cheapest airport for the selected flights. London Gatwick completed the list at number five.

"In doing our research, we were fascinated to find two things," commented Nadine Hallak at cheapflights.co.uk. "The most highly searched destinations were predominantly long-haul, so people are no doubt going further to save on ground costs this summer, in destinations where they get more value for their Pounds."

"We also found that average prices for long-haul are actually cheaper from London airports, while regional airports offer better fares to short-haul destinations like Spain and Portugal," added Ms Hallak.

The cheapest flights to Bankok, New York and Dubai – the three long haul destinations – were all found at London Heathrow, while the cheapest average prices to the long-haul cities from a regional hub were found at Manchester International. The cheapest fare of all was for return flights to Faro from Edinburgh, which came in at just £36.

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