The dog escaped its owners while out for a walk nearby, dashing into the cargo area at the international airport, which is the largest in the UK outside of London. The whippet pictured here is not the dog in question.
Staff spent 40 minutes chasing the runaway mutt across the airfield, forcing 12 take-offs to be delayed and a Turkish Airlines jet to be diverted to Birmingham.
The airfield is about the same size as Manchester City Centre and whippets can reach speeds of up to 35mph, which might explain the time it took for airport officials to catch it.
Gary Brown, the airport’s duty manager, told local paper the Manchester Evening News: “It took some time to catch it. The airfield is obviously quite a big area.
“Because of the delay there was a build up of flights and we had to suspend a Turkish Airways flight from Istanbul. It was diverted to Birmingham, refuelled and has now made its way up here.
“Basically, if there is any lost animal on the runway, we have to stop all flights straight away.”
Bizarrely, this is not the first time that an on-the-loose animal has forced a runway closure at Manchester Airport.
In July this year, an escaped flamingo ran rings around staff for five hours, forcing a runway to close. It then flew off.
The whippet, however, was eventually caught and returned to its owners.
Picture: Getty
