A serious incident involving a plane at Belfast International Airport in July of last year could have been 'catastrophic', an investigation has found.

A report from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch in the UK says the Boeing 737 - which was on its way to Corfu in Greece - failed to accelerate at the necessary speed and struck a light at the end of the runway.

Nobody was injured and there was no damage caused to the plane.

Investigators have found an inaccurate outside air temperature reading was entered into the flight computer.

That resulted in the plane taking off using only 60% of the engine thrust needed to get off the runway.

However, the AAIB says the engine failed at a critical moment and if there had been obstacles in the flight path it could have been catastrophic.

In a statement, the AAIB explains: "The abnormal acceleration during the takeoff run was not identified until the aircraft was rapidly approaching the end of the runway, and no action was taken to either reject the takeoff or increase engine thrust."

However, it adds that the crew members were unlikely to detect the low acceleration "because of normal limitations in human performance".

The review concludes: "The investigation identified other examples of accidents or serious incidents where there was a gross failure of an aircraft to achieve its expected takeoff performance, and found that technical solutions to address this serious safety issue are now feasible."