Sport

Fire in Westwood's jet 'a bit scary'

Golf: World number two Lee Westwood practised for the US Masters after a journey to Augusta he called "a bit scary".

Lee Westwood chats with his caddie Billy Foster during a practice round prior to this week's US Masters at Augusta, Georgia. Photograph: Andrew Redington/Getty Images
Lee Westwood chats with his caddie Billy Foster during a practice round prior to this week's US Masters at Augusta, Georgia. Photograph: Andrew Redington/Getty Images
Tue Apr 05 2011 - 01:00

Golf:World number two Lee Westwood practised for the US Masters after a journey to Augusta he called "a bit scary".

Westwood and Ryder Cup team-mate Ross Fisher were on a private jet from the Houston Open which was forced to make an emergency landing because of a cockpit fire.

"Do the fire engines normally follow you down the runway?" he said on Twitter. "Only when there's smoke in the cabin I guess!!!

"They're not here to put my putter out! That's not on fire! Gone a bit quiet on here!!!"

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On arrival at Augusta National yesterday morning Westwood, last year's runner-up, said: "We were a couple of minutes out of the airport. It was a bit scary.

"It never looks good when you can smell smoke and you turn round and see the pilots have put the masks on.

"The smoke was coming from the cockpit and they told us later they couldn't drop our masks because they feed oxygen into the cabin and if there was a fire it would have fanned the flames.

"The plane came down in a bit of a nosedive because you obviously have to get down as quick as you can.

"There had been a small fire somewhere in the instruments and we had the three fire tenders chasing us down the runaway, but I think that's just a precaution."