A light aircraft with former EastEnders actor Cliff Parisi on board was forced to make an emergency landing at Manston Airport just hours before it closed.
According to the BBC, the plane had to divert to the Kent airport yesterday morning when the pilot reported engine trouble.
Parisi, who starred in the role of Rick ‘Minty’ Peterson in EastEnders and also starred in the BBC drama The Midwife, said he would have ended up "in the drink" if the airport had not still been open.
It closed just hours later at 5pm after its owners said they had received no "credible or viable" offers to buy it.
They had rejected three offers from US investment firm RiverOak.
In a last ditch attempt to save the airport, the Unite union had called on Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin to insist that the airport’s owner kept its Civil Aviation Authority licence operational.
Unite has been campaigning to save the airport on behalf of its 150 workforce.
The union had the support of Sir Roger Gale, Conservative MP for Thanet North, who said there was absolutely no reason why Manston Airport should close, other than "the unwillingness on the part of the Manston group to negotiate at all".
Last October, the site was bought for £1 by Ann Gloag, the co-founder of the Stagecoach Group.
