(CBS) MIAMI British Prime Minister Tony Blair was confirmed to be aboard the British Airways flight that overshot the runway at Miami International Airport Tuesday evening.Flight 209, carrying 343 passengers and crew onboard luckily had no injuries. The plane did not sustain any damage, but some runway lights were broken by the plane. The plane was making an arrival from LondonÂ’s Heathrow Airport, with Blair traveling in first class.
No word yet on what caused it to slightly run off the landing area and onto the grass, said Laura Brown, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman. The plane, with passengers inside, was towed to the terminal on its own power without incident.
A Downing Street official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk about Blair's travel plans, said the prime minister and his family were not hurt in the mishap. He did not say where the Blair family was going, but Blair and his family have taken vacation in Bermuda before.
The pilot stopped the plane at the end of the runway because he could not see the lights to the taxiway, British Airways spokesman John Lampl said. "Apparently they're doing some resurfacing work and relighting, so the lighting was poor. Just to err on the side of caution, the captain decided to stop at the end of the runway and called the tower," Lampl said.
The taxiway lighting met FAA standards, the agency's spokeswoman said.
| Heh. Gotta be the Yanks' fault. Mr Lampl (lol), how many other flights overshot due to the "poor lighting", eh? |
| UK PM riding in FC on a commercial flight? Anyone else find this a bit surprising? I admit I presumed the security arrangements for the PM would be more, um, robust than this. |