Man Utd's plane aborts landing just 400m above runway in Germany

Manchester United’s plane had to abort its landing seconds from touchdown as the squad flew to Germany for Wednesday’s Champions League match with Bayer Leverkusen, British media reported. The chartered 185-seater Monarch Airlines Airbus 321 jet circled before landing safely at the second attempt, 10 minutes late at Cologne’s Konrad Adenauer Airport on Tuesday. [caption id=“attachment_1253183” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Rio Ferdinand tweeted after landing. Getty Images[/caption] “The aircraft, carrying the squad and back room staff, was 400 metres from the Cologne runway when the pilot was alerted to another plane on the ground and had to quickly abandon the descent and rise sharply,” the Manchester Evening News reported on its website. Manchester United have ill memories of Germany. The team lost eight first-team players in a plane crash in Munich in 1958 which claimed a total of 21 lives. The team was flying back to Manchester from Belgrade and had stopped in Munich to refuel. The disaster is a central part of United’s history and the team, under manager Matt Busby — who survived the crash — won the European Cup ten years later. United central defender Rio Ferdinand tweeted: “Landed in Germany… just… I’ve only just recovered after that choppy landing!” United, who declined to comment on the incident, will reach the last 16 with a win in the Group A clash at the Bay Arena. With input from Reuters