Javelin,
As I understand it, Manchester did not have two runways at their disposal. 23L became sterile due to to extensive FOD contamination, pending arrival of AAIB. The aircraft then returned on RWY23R (the only available runway). As you would expect, the Authority inspected the runway before allowing operations to resume. Several aircraft which had already crossed RWY23R for a departure from RWY23L were repositioned to HZ. I too listened to the RTF transmissions on 118.625 and did not here any confusion?????? I was actually quite impressed by the response by ATC/Airport/Fire Service etc.
Airport operations will always suffer during an incident, recovery will always depend on external factors such as AAIB requirements, AFS Cover and so on. Perhaps we all need to be a little more patient otherwise "mistakes will happen and suddenly get worse".