OPERATIONS at Heathrow Airport are returning to normal after the dramatic crash-landing of a plane under the command of a pilot from Worcester.

Captain Peter Burkill, of King Stephen's Mount, off Henwick Road, and the rest of the crew on the Boeing 777 had just seconds to get flight BA038 down safely after the engines failed on Thursday afternoon.

Amazingly, disaster was averted after Mr Burkill and his co-pilot John Coward landed the aircraft just within Heathrow's fence following the malfunction.

After the crash-landing 136 passengers and 16 crew members were evacuated in a major operation. Thirteen people were treated in hospital for minor injuries.

Investigators are still with the plane on the southern runway today, as they continue to work to determine the cause of the fault.

Heathrow Airport was thrown into chaos after the near-fatal incident, with 221 flights immediately cancelled on Thursday.

But a BAA spokeswoman said services were set to return to normal today.

"All operations are returning today, with all terminals returning to normal," she said.

"There are no temporary marquees up, all passengers can resume normal procedures for checking in.

"British Airways has 21 cancellations in place - including arrivals and departures. These are all short-haul flights cancelled due to the knock-on effect as a result of the incident."

British Airways said it had fully restored its long-haul schedule and had 95 per cent of its short-haul flights running as normal.