One trip from Southend Airport was over before it began when this plane became a stick-in-the-mud.

As the Boeing 757 taxied up the runway, its wheels went off track and ended up in a ditch.

The emergency services were called to the incident on Wednesday afternoon but firefighters were turned away on arrival.

Roger Campbell, airport director, said: "The Boeing 757 was taxiing up the runway when the incident occurred. It began to turn and one wheel came off the runway onto grass.

"All its wheels left the runway. This was not a serious incident and nobody was injured."

Emergency over - airport staff extricate the stricken airliner from the mud

Pictures: MAXINE CLARKE

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.