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Story Highlights• British PM Tony Blair and family on plane that missed turn onto taxiway• None of 343 passengers aboard the jumbo jet was injured, officials said • Blair was reportedly en route to stay at home of former Bee Gee Adjust font size:
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A Boeing 747 carrying British Prime Minister Tony Blair missed a turn after landing and struck runway lights Tuesday at Miami International Airport, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said. There were no casualties in the incident, which happened as Blair, his wife and some of his children were traveling to Miami to stay at the home of former Bee Gee Barry Gibb, the UK's Press Association said. "Nobody was injured and there was no damage" to the plane, airport spokesman Marc Henderson told CNN. British Airways Flight 209 was carrying 343 passengers when the incident happened just after 6 p.m. ET, he said. The plane "did not go into the grass" Henderson said. "The taxiway requires a kind of a hard turn; it's tricky," the FAA's Laura Brown said. "I don't know exactly what happened, but they somehow missed that turn." British Airways spokesman John Lampl said that a portion of the runway was under construction, making it difficult for the pilot to see clearly where he was on the runway. The plane was pushed back onto Runway 12-30, which is 9,354 feet long and 150 feet wide. From there it taxied under its own power to its assigned gate, Henderson said. Passengers disembarked normally. The Miami Herald reported that Blair and his family were on their way to Miami for a vacation. The prime minister's office would not discuss Blair's travel plans. ![]() British Airways Flight 209 sits at its gate in Miami on Tuesday, moments after missing a turn off the runway with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his family aboard. |