An investigation was under way today after more than 50 passengers were forcedto evacuate a British Airways plane when the cabin filled with smoke just beforetake off at Belfast airport.
Airline engineers were carrying out a full examination of the aircraft todiscover what had gone wrong.
One woman was slightly injured when the 54 passengers - including a man in awheelchair and a mother and young baby- escaped the BAe 147 down emergencychutes at Belfast City Airport.
A full scale emergency was declared when the smoke appeared as the aircraftwas reversing from in front of the terminal building before take off for theflight to Manchester just before 9 a.m.
A British Airways spokeswoman said: "All the passengers were on board and, asit was pushing back from the stand, they noticed a slight haze of blue smoke inthe cabin.
"The captain decided as a precautionary measure to have a full evacuation andemergency slides were deployed and all the passengers were safely evacuated downthe slides."
One passenger of the flight said: "As the plane was moving towards therunway, the engine just died and then we heard the pilot shouting to evacuate.
"Thank God we weren't in the air. All the staff responded to the situationreally quickly, although I think they were in as much shock as we were."
The injured woman, who is understood to have suffered a minor back injurywhile sliding down the emergency shoot, was treated at the scene by an ambulancecrew.
She then joined other passengers in the BA lounge while alternativearrangements were made to fly them to England.
BA said later that within around three hours all passengers had either beengiven a replacement flight to Manchester or flights to other airports in Englandwhich suited them.
A spokesman for Belfast City Airport said: "The airport's emergencyprocedures were successfully implemented in full. The airport is operatingnormally and flights are leaving and arriving on schedule."
The aircraft was towed to a service area well away from the terminal buildingwhere BA engineers began their investigation.
PA