Flights at Manchester airport were brought to a standstill - by a whippet.
Managers were forced to shut down a runway after the whippet managed to evade security and run loose at the UK's 4th busiest airport.
A flight from Turkey was forced to divert to Birmingham because of the Saturday morning drama – and a dozen other flights were delayed.
Airport staff spent forty minutes chasing the animal across the tarmac after it ran away from its owners and slipped past a manned access point into a cargo area.
A local family were walking the pedigree dog near to The Rompers pub when the racing pedigree - capable of speeds of up to 35mph -slipped away.
Crews instantly issued an alarm to cease all take-offs and landings after it was spotted on the runway at 10.40am.
It is the second day in the row there have been delays at the airport after flights were held up on Friday because of 3mm of snow.
Gary Brown, the airport’s duty manager, said it took crews some time to corner the animal.
He said: “It took some time to catch it. The airfield is obviously quite a big area. Because of the delay there was a build up of flights and we had to suspend a Turkish Airways flight from Istanbul. It was diverted to Birmingham, refuelled and has now made its way up here.
“Basically, if there is any lost animal on the runway, we have to stop all flights straight away. Fortunately, we’ve cleared the backlog.”
The animal was later safely re-united with its family. Fortunately, passengers who forced to wait in departure lounges saw the funny side.
Among those caught up in the delays was DJ Clint Boon, who tweeted: “Delayed flying from Paris because of industrial action. Delayed landing at Manchester due to "dogs on the runway". I love this city.”
In July there were delays when a pink flamingo forced the closure of the runway.
The bird – nicknamed Ringo – evaded capture for almost five hours before being caught.
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