Airport alert as jet forced to turn back to Edinburgh due to smoke in cockpit

A FULL-scale emergency was declared at Edinburgh Airport after a plane was forced to turn back shortly after taking off for London.

The British Airways flight had left the Capital about 12.40pm yesterday bound for Heathrow with no passengers on board, when the crew discovered smoke in the cockpit.

Fire crews were on the scene when the Boeing 767 aircraft, which had an engine replaced days earlier, landed at 1.10pm.

BA said the plane had been on its way to London for engineering work. A BA spokesman said: “The aircraft had been in Edinburgh longer than planned due to a damaged engine. The engine was replaced by our engineers.

“The flight crew reported smoke in the cockpit, and returned to Edinburgh as a precaution. The incident was not related to the previous engine damage.”

No other flights were delayed as a result of the emergency.

An airport spokesman said: “There were only two pilots involved so there was no need to spend time evacuating luggage or passengers.

“As a matter of precaution our own fire crews were in attendance and Lothian and Borders Fire Service were also called, but that is standard procedure for this kind of incident.”