Local 'thought plane had crashed' after hearing bangs and sirens
Paul Gaitely, 59, was due to go on a four-man holiday to Tenerife, with his drinking buddies dubbed The Jolly Boys, but this will have to be rescheduled.
Last night the Luton resident, who lives less than a mile from the airport, heard bangs and saw flames, leading him to believe a plane had crashed. He said: "We all heard crashes and we could hear all the sirens,
"I said to my wife 'there's something happening at the airport.' Then we could heard the bangs from the cars, the windows. We heard the sirens before the bangs. I could see the flames, I thought it was a plane crash."
He said a relative who works in the airport had told him that a Range Rover had caused the fire, information that has not been confirmed by officials. Mr Gaitely, the director of a planting machinery company, said he had been on his way to celebrate a friend's 70th birthday.
He added: "Our flight has been cancelled unfortunately, we literally got message now, it's a bit late. We just looked and the board and saw a sea of red."
The burned out shells of cars (PA)