AIR accident investigators were today trying to find out why a jet crash landed at Birmingham Airport, plunging thousands of passengers into chaos.

More than 200 flights were cancelled, diverted or heavily delayed and a fleet of coaches forced into action to ferry marooned travellers to other airports.

The drama unfolded shortly after 6am yesterday when a TNT freight flight made an emergency landing, with only one undercarriage working properly.

The aircraft spun around on a bed of anti-fire foam, blocking a runway and plunging the airport into chaos.

Some furious passengers had been due to fly out to Germany for yesterday's World Cup clash. They missed the 2-0 win.

All flights in and out of the airport, including 19 scheduled departures to Germany, were immediately suspended after the emergency landing.

Meanwhile a major operation swung into action to divert all incoming flights, many full of holidaymakers, to other airports. By mid-afternoon the plane was being shifted off the runway and by 4pm the airport was fully operational.

A spokeswoman for Birmingham International Airport said: "It is very unfortu-nate that the incident happened, but we are pleased at the way all the agencies at the airport mucked in together to deal with what was a very difficult situation."

A total of 86 incoming flights were diverted, with another 115 departures either cancelled or seriously delayed.

Andy Gillespie, 25, from Bloxwich, who was set to fly off to Egypt, said: "We've been waiting five hours and we don't know what's going on."

Tony Walker, 71, from Wythall, and wife Pat, 59, both retired travel agents were off to Majorca. He said: "I think in these situations you just have to accept it."

Kevin McMurray, 22, a council worker from Coventry, was flying to Berlin with 18 friends with a view to getting tickets to the games.

He said: "I think we're going to be flying from East Midlands airport, but I don't know if we're going to make it over in time for the game."