A PLANE was forced to make a crash landing at a North-East airport after its wheels failed to lower.

Teesside International Airport was put on full emergency at 2.30pm on Saturday after the pilot of the Cessna 441 twin propeller aircraft reported that its front wheel would not lock into place.

Emergency services from the airport and Durham and Darlington Fire Brigade were called to the scene and the aircraft, with three people on board, was forced to circle the airport to use up its fuel.

A blanket of foam was laid on the main runway and the plane was given the go-ahead to land.

On hitting the runway, the nose wheel collapsed, causing slight damage to the aircraft.

Those on board were uninjured.

The incident led to the runway being closed for about 40 minutes and there were slight delays to scheduled services.

Teesside International Airport spokesman, John Waiting, praised the pilot and crew for bringing the plane down safely.

"It was a text book landing and although there was some damage to the plane, no one was injured," he said.

"The aircraft was then moved off the runway and into an engineering hangar. There was a slight delay while we ensured there was no damage to the runway, but we were fully operational again within 40 to 50 minutes."

Emergency services have been called to the airport on a number of occasions over the past couple of months, particularly when there has been smoke reported in aircraft.

But Mr Waiting said: "It is not unusual for an airport of this size to have incidents like this, but our staff are fully trained if there is an emergency and on this occasion we would give them ten out of ten.