BBC NEWS | UK | England | West Midlands | Cargo plane crash pilots sacked

The Boeing 737-300 at Birmingham International Airport

Thousands of passengers had to be moved to other airports after the cargo plane landed on its nose at Birmingham International Airport on 15 June.

Cargo company TNT said despite the Belgian pilot showing skill in his handling of the situation the incident was down to human error.

The automatic pilot system was disengaged due to a "momentary lapse".

Bad weather

The flight had come in from Liege in Belgium and should have landed at Stansted, but was prevented from doing so because of bad weather.

It was diverted to Nottingham East Midlands Airport where it landed on the grass, causing its landing gear to be detached.

It then became airborne again and made an emergency diversion to Birmingham, landing on its nose, left landing gears and the right engine in the early hours.

The aeroplane remained on the runway, causing all take-offs to be cancelled for six hours and arrivals only resuming in the afternoon.

More than 200 flights had to be diverted or were delayed.

The Air Accident Investigation Branch is investigating but TNT said it operated a "zero accident tolerance level".

The automatic pilot system was accidentally switched off during the approach to Nottingham, it said.