Safety

Rescuers have yet to locate three occupants of an Atlantic Airways British Aerospace 146 aircraft which apparently veered off the runway and caught fire at the Norwegian airport of Stord today.

There were 12 passengers and four crew on board the jet which was arriving from Stavanger when the accident occurred at around 07:35.

An intense fire developed during the incident but 13 occupants have survived, says Stord airport.

“Three have yet to be found,” she says, adding that emergency crews have extinguished the blaze. While she says that the accident happened on landing, there are no further details on the circumstances of the crash.

Stord Airport is located on the western coast of Norway and has a single runway, designated 15/33, which is 1,460m (4,790ft) in length.

Atlantic Airways is based in the Faroe Islands, an autonomous region of Denmark located between the UK and Iceland. The carrier operates a small fleet of BAe 146s and BAE Systems Avro RJ aircraft but the identity of the jet involved in the accident has yet to be confirmed.