A PLANE was forced to make an emergency landing after a wheel fell off during take-off from Cockerham.
The Cessna 185 suffered damage to its landing gear as it left the small airfield with five parachutists on board.
Pilot Gordon Cooper managed to get the plane into the air and the skydivers parachuted back to the ground before Mr Cooper then circled the plane over Greater Manchester to burn off fuel and made an emergency landing at Barton Aerodrome.
The Greater Manchester Police helicopter was scrambled to follow the plane into Barton, close to the busy M60 motorway. Traffic police were on standby.
The drama unfolded at the Black Knights Parachute Centre after the plane veered to one side on take-off and hit a mound of earth, snapping off a main wheel and a strut.
Insp Ian Tickner, of Greater Manchester Police, says: "The pilot is safe and well and there is no further damage to the plane."
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