Manston Airport

As soon as the airport's operations duty manager found out about the stricken plane, he contacted the airline and told them that if their flight crash-landed at Heathrow, the airport would be left with only one main runway, causing major congestion.

As a result, he suggested that the pilots diverted to Manston Airport in Kent, south-east England.

This was a reasonable suggestion.

Manston was a military base with a 9,000-foot-long runway, well-suited for a large aircraft like the A340.