A NEW landing procedure has been introduced at Southampton Airport to halt so-called vortex damage to the roofs of houses along the flightpath.

Pilots are now being told to approach the airfield from the Winchester direction when there is no wind following three recent vortex incidents.

In the worst case at the end of May, about a dozen tiles were lifted from Della Gritt's home in Halstead Road, Bitterne Park, and smashed into a neighbour's car.

The airport launched an investigation and has now come up with the idea of bringing planes in from the north during still weather in a bid to minimise the impact of whirlwinds created by the wingtips of aeroplanes. The authorities call it the "still-air" landing.

In windy conditions vortexes quickly disappear but their powerful "plug hole" effect can linger for several minutes in still air.

Tiled house roofs beneath the southern approach to the runway have proved more susceptible to vortex damage in the past, with little or no damage reported to the warehouses lying beneath the northern approach.

The new still-air landing procedure was announced by the airport's managing director, David Cumming, at a meeting of the Southampton Airport Consultative Committee, where members heard there had been three incidents of vortex damage near the Southampton end of the runway in the last few weeks.

He said: "Having had none for about ten years, we've suddenly had about three on the trot. There's no particular reason we've found that this should have happened. I hope this is a flash in the pan."

Anti-noise campaigner Mary Finch, of Bitterne Park Residents' Association, told the meeting that she saw one of the incidents.

She said: "It was very frightening. If anybody had been near they would have got badly hurt."

Airport operations manager Mark Gibb said the affected tiles had not been nailed down and added: "It could have been the wind that took it."

But Mrs Finch said it was quite normal for houses to have a few loose tiles and added: "Our roofs are there to keep out the elements. They're not there as an air raid shelter."

Mrs Finch claimed most of the danger came from high winged BAe 146 jets - a type used by Flybe. But Mr Cumming denied any link to the 146, saying no aircraft type was worse than others.