Manchester City staff plane evacuated over cabin smoke reports

An investigation found an air conditioning fault on the Romania-bound Carpatair chartered flight

A plane carrying Manchester City staff and media to a Champions League match has been evacuated after reports smoke was seen in the cabin.

Passengers were evacuated as the aircraft was preparing to depart from Manchester Airport at about 11:00 BST, causing a 40-minute delay.

An investigation by the Romanian airline Carpatair found it was not smoke but steam that had been released from the air conditioning system.

City play Steaua Bucharest on Tuesday.

A spokesman for Manchester Airport said: "It appears that there was a smell of smoke in the cabin after (the passengers) boarded."

However, the charter airline's president Nicolae Petrov said: "The crew decided to disembark passengers because steam was released into the passenger cabin.

"After the necessary checks, it was established that it was caused by condensation accumulated in the air conditioning ducts system on the long previous flight."

There were no players on board the plane.

The passengers were taken to the departure lounge while the fire service carried out checks.