Heathrow, Britain’s busiest airport, said no passenger injuries had been reported and it did not anticipate any ongoing impact to the airport’s operations.

“Our aircraft is being assessed by our engineering teams and we have provided an alternative aircraft to limit the impact on our customers,” British Airways said in a statement.

Virgin Atlantic said its empty Boeing 787-9 had just completed a flight and was being towed to another part of the airfield when the incident happened at Terminal 3.

A Virgin Atlantic spokesman said: “We’ve commenced a full and thorough investigation and our engineering teams are performing maintenance checks on the aircraft, which for now has been taken out of service.”

The airline said there would be no disruption to its flying programme on Saturday.

Heathrow said it was working with emergency services and the two airlines in response to the incident.