Plane's emergency landing after engine shutdown

All passengers safely disembarked from the Blue Islands flight, airport staff said

A passenger plane travelling from Birmingham to Jersey had to make an emergency landing shortly after take-off due to a "technical issue" with one of its two engines.

The Blue Islands plane, which typically has space for about 70 passengers, took off at 15:00 BST on Sunday but had to return to the airport, landing successfully in strong winds.

A Blue Islands spokesperson said the aircraft was being looked at by its engineers and said the safety of its passengers, crew and aircraft was its highest priority.

They added passengers who were on the flight on Sunday were provided with a hotel and hot meal.

'Abundance of caution'

In a statement, a spokesperson for the airline said the plane's crew followed standard operating procedures and passengers disembarked normally.

It said the flight's crew received a cockpit indication of a "technical issue" and followed procedure in dealing with it and shut down the engine as a precaution.

It said the engine "at no time stopped working in any uncontrolled way".

A spokesperson added: "These procedures have an abundance of caution built into them to ensure passenger safety."

A spokesperson for Birmingham Airport said one flight was diverted, but no other restrictions were placed on the runway as a result of the landing.

Leanne Rowe said the flight from the beginning was "rocky"

Leanne Rowe, who was travelling to Jersey with her family for a holiday, said she tried to reassure her children, but was "feeling unsure" herself.

She said: "It was pretty scary - straight from the start it was quite rocky...

"My daughter was quite upset about it... at some point in the air the captain said to us that we were going to turn around because there was a problem with the engine.

"You don't really know how serious that is."

Ms Rowe said there were fire engines waiting for them when they landed.

Lauren York said it was "very worrying" when the plane landed back in Birmingham

Lauren York said her son, who is 20 months old, "slept through" it all.

She said: "When we touched ground and we were swerving all over the place, that was really frightening.

"We were just holding on to him thinking are we going to make it?

"It was very worrying."

Sarah Brown said the pilot "did a great job" in getting passengers back on the ground, but that it was "still quite scary".

She said: "We knew we'd get here safely in the end.

She added that afterwards her children "got to go in the cockpit, meet both the pilots, so they had an experience".

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said after a review of the circumstances of the incident, it had not initiated an investigation.