Let Knutsford residents be in no doubt whatsoever about the very real danger we were all in when that struggling Peruvian Tristar fought desperately to clear the rooftops of our town.

I have lived in Tabley Road for a number of years and I have never witnessed an aircraft so low, so far from take-off at Ringway.

Like some other residents I ran round my house to see where it was going to crash. And then to learn from your report (last week's Knutsford Guardian that one of its three engines was missing and emergency services were on local standby for its take-off, beggars belief.

What about the rest of us? Why weren't WE put on standby that this highly dangerous procedure was about to take place?

Possibly a note through the door saying: 'By the way, we're letting a dodgy aircraft take off soon. It may not be able to gain the height too quickly. Keep your heads down.'

Ridiculous, of course, but so too was some manager's permission for this flight to take off. Your entirely reasonable editorial questions need answering.

The first step is for the airport to tell us exactly what happened - and then admit it was wrong.

Let's hear what action they are taking to ensure that they never, ever allow such a seemingly dangerous flight again.

PETER SHARRATT

Tabley Road

Knutsford

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.