The plane landed after passengers said they smelled burning

The aircraft, belonging to First Choice airways, was forced to turn back on Friday, 15 minutes after leaving for Kerkyra in Corfu at 1845 BST.

A fleet of fire engines was sent onto the tarmac and firefighters helped passengers and crew off the aircraft.

No one was hurt, but engineers are said to be carrying out checks on the plane.

One of the passengers was Jane Andrews from BBC Radio Five Live, who said: "People were really quite distressed and I think that's the main reason we turned around, I don't think there was any real danger.

"There were a lot of children on board and one mother was particularly upset."

She said passengers were taken back to the departure lounge where they were initially told their flight would be taking off again at 2100 BST.

But she said they were then told the flight was being delayed again and at 2130 BST the last information the holiday-makers had been given was they were due to leave Gatwick at 2300 BST.