29/04/2014 East Midlands Today

the papers on the BBC News Channel in a few minutes. Now

And now the news for the East Midlands, I'm Anne Davies. Good

evening. First tonight, East Midlands Airport remains closed

tonight as investigators try to remove a stranded cargo plane from

the runway. It's been shut for around 20 hours now with dozens of

flights cancelled that have caused huge disruption to thousands of

passengers. Our reporter Mike O'Sullivan has been at the airport

all day and joins me now. Mike, when's it due to reopen? Good

evening. In the last few minutes I have been told that the stranded

plane is now beginning to reap `` be cleared from the runway. It is a

huge operation to lift it out of the way. It is hoped the report could

open in the next few hours. Disruption for passion is ``

passengers continued late into the evening. Passengers for the Phantom

plane that never was. They were checked into a Ryanair flight to

Alicante that was supposed to be leaving around 11:20pm tonight.

After going into security and getting a meal voucher, they were

sent back to get on a bus to Birmingham Airport. I've been told

are going to Birmingham. I bus. How do you feel? Disgusted. It is like

whistling for Dixie and they don't come. We had to come through here

and they said, you are going to Birmingham. Flights were cancelled

affecting around 6000 passengers today. The huge cargo plane stranded

on the runway, the landing gear slapped `` snapped at 2:30am after

the plane landed normally delivering parcels from Paris. Throughout the

day, passengers have been ferried to Manchester and Leeds airport.

Originally we thought we were going off earlier than this to Leeds,

about 11am this morning. Apparently there is a problem with the

coaches. We will have to wait and see what happens. The staff have

been very informative. There are no buses to Manchester. We are flying

out of Manchester at 1:55pm. This is a very complex situation. The

aircraft had incident this morning at 2:30am. That led to a full

investigation. That takes time to complete. The owners of the plane

have said sorry for the inconvenience. An air accident

investigation is underway. The report says Ryanair had to

switch that delayed flight to Birmingham because of crewing

problems. Of the cargo plane says it was well maintained and had an

inspection only last week. But now here's hoping that the airport will

reopen in the next few hours. Thanks very much, Mike.

The former Conservative MP for Newark, Patrick Mercer, has tonight

resigned, prompting speculation of a snap Parliamentary by`election. It

comes after he was suspended from the House of Commons for allegedly

accepting money for asking questions in Parliament for a foreign client.

This report from our Political Editor John Hess.

Tonight, Patrick Mercer walked out on 13 years as Newark's MP. His

parliamentary reputation in tatters. What's happened has happened, I am

ashamed of it. Therefore I will do what I can to put it right, for the

constituency of Newark. I am a Newark man. I have not lived in

Newark for any political expediency. I have lived here for my family and

my wife. We have been under such pressure last year. I hope that my

successor, who has been well and truly chosen, will be the

Conservative candidate. His downfall was this, agreeing to lobby on

behalf of the government of the G. `` of Fiji. Today, the Parliamentary

committee for standards used its full powers to suspend him from the

Commons were six months. Tonight, at his Newark constituency, this was of

the reaction. I think it is the right thing. It is a bit of a

shock, really, because we have all been happy with him normally. We

have all been fine with him in Newark. He left the Conservative

party within weeks of the original allegations and intended to remain

as an independent until the general election. Tonight he has forced a

by`election that will be very unwelcome in Downing Street.

And John's with me now. So how soon will there will a by`election in

Newark? The by`election kicks and once the Parliamentary ripped has

been moved through the House of Commons. Then there will be a

further three to four weeks. The significance is this. The date will

be after Thursday May 22, the date for the European and local

elections. Nigel Farage, any likelihood he can stand? Today,

Nigel Farage said he would be interested in standing in Newark if

it was after the European elections. The Conservatives already have a

Parliamentary candidate in place, he is a director with the auctioneer

's. Labour also have a candidate in place. Patrick Mercer had a

Conservative majority of 16,000 at the last general election. But as we

know, in a Parliamentary by`election, that majority could

disappear like sand in the hand. Especially with a strong challenge

from UKIP. Let's watch this space. Thank you very much.

Hundreds of University of Derby students have been told they could

have been put at risk of contracting the HIV virus. It's after a health

worker was suspended for re`using syringe barrels for blood tests and

vaccinations. An investigation's underway. NHS England has told more

than six hundred students they could be infected with blood borne

viruses, like Hepatitis B or HIV, but says the risk is 'extremely

low'. That's how the news looks so far.

Let's take a look at the weather forecast.

Another warm day today. We have had close peeping in this afternoon. I

am hopeful there will be more sunshine breaking through for

tomorrow afternoon, although we will have to wait to get that. We will

start off quite murky once again. A few sneaky showers this evening,

they will fade away the night. A lot of crowd `` cloud and murk forming.

Seven, eight, nine degrees temperatures. The mist will start to

clear, and we will see the cloud breaking up into the afternoon. The

lesson spells of sunshine later on in the day. `` pleasant spells.

Temperatures getting up to around 16 or 17 degrees. There is a very small

chance of a light shower. I will leave with the Outlook

some sharp showers. It will be colder still on Friday.

Hello again, the holiday weekend is not far-away. We are still expecting

the weather to change significantly before then. Some patchy rain from

northern Scotland tomorrow. There is a lot of cloud coming in from the

North Sea which is pushing its way inland. There could be quite a bit

of fog around in the morning. It should be a mild, misty, murky start

to