TUI plane issued mayday call after ‘trespasser’ shut runway at UK airport

Craig Munro | Senior Politics Reporter Published August 23, 2026 3:27pm Updated August 23, 2026 3:27pm The TUI flight, not pictured, had taken off from Cape Verde around five hours earlier (Picture: Getty Images) A TUI flight was forced into an emergency diversion as its fuel supplies ran low during a ‘tresspass’ incident at Manchester Airport. Planes were blocked from landing on a runway at the UK’s third-busiest airport for a period on Friday night due to the security breach. They included one TUI Airways flight from Cape Verde’s Aristides Pereira International Airport, which was five hours into its journey when it began its approach to Manchester. However, air traffic control intervened and told the pilot that the plane would need to stay in the air until the incident was cleared. This