BANGOR – Seven Jaguar fighters from the Royal Air Force in England spent Wednesday night here after several of the planes experienced wing damage in an ice storm over Canada.

The aircraft, which were returning to their home base in Colstishall, England, had been on a three-week training mission at Eilson Air Force Base in Fairbanks, Alaska.

The crews had spent the time doing low-level flying over Alaska’s rugged terrain, explained 1st Lt. Todd Nadeau, community manager for the 101st Refueling Wing of the Maine Air National Guard in Bangor.

On their way back to England, “they ran into an ice storm over Winnipeg and sustained damage to the leading edges of the wings,” Nadeau said Thursday.

One plane also had damage to the intake area of an engine.

The damage was not significant enough to cause the crews to divert the planes quickly, Nadeau said, and the fighters landed at Bangor Air National Guard Base on Wednesday afternoon.

Air Guard and RAF crews did an assessment of the planes, and the aircraft left Bangor at mid-morning Thursday, bound for Lajes Field in the Azores on their way back to England.

Wednesday was a busy day for the Air Guard field in Bangor.

An Air Guard C-5 cargo plane from Newburgh, N.Y., developed a mechanical problem after picking up a load of refurbished Humvees at the base on Wednesday.

The plane circled over Bangor while the crew ran a checklist to determine whether the plane would have to land again. In the end, the C-5 headed back to New York.