Thomas Cook Plane In Ash Scare

A Thomas Cook plane had to return to Manchester airport yesterday in what is thought to be a volcanic ash related problem, the Boeing 757 was bound for Corfu, to rescue stranded passengers on the holiday island. The plane which only had cabin crew on board ran into trouble at 20,000ft over Stratford, with the captain reporting an intense smell of ash.

After reaching 37,000ft the captain reported they had lost an engine bleed valve, which sucks air into the cabin to maintain pressure, the cause of this is thought to be the volcanic ash clogging the valve. The captain then made a request to land quickly back at Manchester airport, free of being placed in a queue.

Once back on the tarmac Thomas Cook officials claimed the aircraft had to abort its flight due to a minor technical malfunction with its air-conditioning and refused to lay the blame on volcanic ash.