A failed aircraft landing had repercussions on Luxembourg Airport's flight traffic on Thursday evening.

A light aircraft experienced issues when landing at Findel on Thursday evening, prompting the closure of the airport's runway for some time. As a result, a number of flights were delayed or cancelled.

The aircraft, privately owned and registered in Belgium, was due to land in Luxembourg at 7pm, but the landing gear failed, which meant the plane touched down on its underside and skidded some 500m before coming to a halt on the runway.

The two occupants of the plane sustained minor injuries and were taken to hospital for a check-up. According to RTL sources, the plane flew from Belgium to the Grand Duchy for personal reasons.

The incident had strong repercussions on the airport's scheduled arrivals and departures as the runway was closed for the duration of clean-up activities, which lasted around four hours. Lux-Airport said 14 flights were cancelled and six were rescheduled as a result.

General director Alexander Flassak explained why it took so long to sort the issue and why so many flights were grounded:

"We weren't able to partially reopen the runway; it had to remain completely closed until the aircraft was recovered. First, the pilots received initial medical attention, then the police, AET, and technical services conducted their accident investigations, and only then could the CGDIS recover the aircraft. This took a total of four hours, including the subsequent runway inspection and cleanup."

Luxair alone had seven delayed flights and four cancelled departures. Director of operations Daniel Colling said there would be a financial impact:

"As it's a force majeure, EU-261 does not apply in this case, meaning that costs for hotels and other variable fees will be incurred. It's manageable, I estimate it will cost a maximum of 100,000 euros, and we believe 1,130 people were impacted by the flight changes."

Both Lux-Airport and Luxair would have liked the whole thing to have been sorted more quickly, but Flassak said that everyone involved worked well together and that safety was ultimately the most important thing. In conclusion, the aircraft troubleshooting conducted by the Grand Ducal Fire and Rescue Corps took around an hour, while the remainder of the time was dedicated to investigation and clean-up work.