East Midlands Airport closed for two hours after the undercarriage of a vintage World War II Spitfire gave way on landing.
The pilot, the only person in the plane, escaped uninjured but the airport was closed as debris was removed from the runway. Flights were re-routed to nearby Birmingham.
The plane is owned by Rolls-Royce and is based at the Leicestershire airport.
Plane-spotter Edward Coxon explained: “I was just looking at the planes coming in when all of a sudden there were loads of blue lights coming in from the other end of the runway.
“That’s when I saw the plane in the middle of the runway,” he told the BBC. “I could hear on the radio that there was only one person on board and he was fine.”
Spitfire accident closes East Midlands Airport
