Airport chaos hits Britain yet again as planes 'clip wings' at Manchester Airport and stop ALL flights

Two easyJet planes have clipped wings leading to delays and cancellations for thousands at one of the UK's busiest airports today.

The incident took place at Manchester Airport just after 6.30am, with flights stopped and people heading on their summer holidays warned to expect delays.

One passenger on board described their horror as the Airbus A320 jets collided while taxiing to the runway and looked out of their window to see the crash 'took the wing off'.

An airport worker was seen clutching part of the wing that had been smashed off.

A holidaymaker on board the most badly damaged plane shared an image of the wing with its tip damaged and twisted downwards.

Phil Aspin said: 'We've crashed on the runway', adding that both planes were 'knackered' after the collision and a friend 'saw bits of the plane fly past the window'.

One of the easyJet planes was set to fly to Gibraltar while the other was about to take off for Paris, the Daily Mail understands.

Another person on the plane, whose plans to travel from Gibraltar to Marbella have been hit, said: 'Just on the plane at Manchester Airport and another plane has just hit our wing and took the wing off'.

An investigation into how the planes managed to collide - and why they were so close to each other in the first place - is already underway.

An easyJet spokesman said: 'EasyJet can confirm that two aircraft came into contact whilst taxiing to the runway at Manchester Airport.

'The aircraft returned to stand to disembark customers who have been provided with refreshment vouchers whilst replacement aircraft are arranged to operate the flights.

'We apologise to customers for the delay to their flights. The safety of our passengers and crew is our highest priority'.

Photographs taken after the incident showed the two easyJet planes side by side.

Flights were paused while there were safety checks carried out on the jets.

Departures and arrivals were restarted a little later.

But passengers have been warned that the incident will lead to delays to flights this morning at the UK's third busiest airport.

Phil Aspin, 34, from Newcastle, was sitting in seat 12 F next to the emergency exit gearing up to jet off to Gibraltar when he heard a 'loud thud' as a nearby easyJet plane getting ready to take off to fly to Paris crashed in to their wing.

The disrupted passenger said: 'We were about to take off, we were about 10 minutes away from taking off.

'We were meant to leave at 6.15. The pilot was on the tannoy to us all saying 'it'll be 10 minutes, we're the next plane about to take off'.

'There's a V in the [taxiway] and we were going to the left hand side, and there was another plane coming on the right hand side, another easyJet flight.

'While the pilot was talking to us, the other plane went straight into the side of the other wing.

'There was a proper thud, a really loud thud while the pilot was talking to us.

'Our pilot was a bit stunned because it was the other plane's fault, it just went straight at the side of it.

'We were sat next to the window, we looked outside and my friend saw bits of the plane fly past the window.

'We could see it happen but everyone else didn't know what was going on - the wings had collided.

'There seems to be more damage on the other plane than our's, our's has just had the end chopped off, it was on the floor.

'There was a guy just picking up bits of plane off the ground. Our pilot on the Tannoy said 'there's clearly been a collision here, give us 10 minutes'.

'Next thing we know there were fire engines turning up, there were people on the side of the plane trying to work out what was going on.

'After that, the pilot said "this plane's clearly damaged, we're going to have to go back to the main airport".'

It wasn't until nearly 8am that Phil and his fellow passengers, who are travelling to a friend's 50th birthday for the weekend, made it back to the terminal.

Now, the group, due to fly back on Sunday, is worried their whole trip might need to be cancelled.

He added: 'I think everyone was just really shocked, because the pilot was talking to us at the time, it wasn't just like we were sat there, we were all listening to the pilot and all of a sudden there was a massive thud.

'You could just tell the pilot didn't know what was going on either, and then a few minutes later he said 'there's clearly been a collision'.

'There was a bit of disarray - people didn't know what was going on, it was a big thud, the whole plane shook, as you'd imagine.

'Even though it's just two wings it's obviously caused quite a bit of impact.

'I think both planes are probably knackered really.'