British Airways is certain to come under increasing pressure today to ground its Concorde fleet after three separate safety incidents over the weekend - just days after the Air France Concorde disaster.
Last night 57 passengers were grounded at Gander, Newfoundland, when their New York bound flight was forced to divert after the captain smelt fuel as it neared the US. A BA spokeswoman said passenger safety was never at risk in any of the incidents, which were treated with strong "precautionary action".
On Saturday night a BA Concorde flight bound for London Heathrow from New York suffered a mixture of fuel and air in the engine which led to fire engines and ambulances being put on standby beside the runway as it landed.
The drama caused a loud bang inside the jet, which was "something like an engine backfiring", a BA spokeswoman said.
The 18 passengers on board were informed of the incident, the spokeswoman said.
In the third incident a refuelling problem prevented a BA Concorde bound for New York taking off yesterday morning, the airline said.
The incidents come five days after an Air France Concorde crashed near Paris, killing 114 people. Experts from Britain's Civil Aviation Authority are due to meet their French counterparts today to discuss safety measures for Concorde flights. They will join officials from Air France and the British and French transport ministries in trying to agree a new system of safety checks to allow the airline to resume flights of its Concorde fleet.
Air France's five Concordes were grounded after last week's crash near Paris. British Airways resumed flights of its seven-strong supersonic fleet the day after the crash.
Speaking about the Newfoundland incident, a BA spokeswoman said: "The captain become aware of a smell in the aircraft at the rear of the cabin and he decided to take the most precautionary action possible which was to divert. The aircraft is now grounded."
She insisted that the smell was "only slight" and that the passengers were unlikely to be aware of it. She added that the passengers were informed of the incident but remained calm throughout.
Passengers first became aware of a problem when the aircraft slowed down above the Atlantic, when they were still a long way from New York.
The landing eventually went smoothly, said one of the passengers. It had been a "difficult decision" to fly Concorde in the first place after the Air France disaster, he continued.
"But we were sure that after all the attention around it they wouldn't take any chances."
Passengers had been told they would be stranded at Gander until the early hours.