Ryanair flight diverted to Liverpool after hitting bird

Ryanair said the diversion was caused by "a minor bird strike"

A flight from Manchester had to make an unscheduled landing at Liverpool John Lennon Airport after a bird flew into the plane's engine during take-off.

Ryanair said the flight was carrying holidaymakers bound for Lanzarote when there was "a minor bird strike".

Flight FR2131 was diverted to Liverpool and customers were transferred to a replacement aircraft that left for the island about an hour later.

Ryanair apologised for the diversion and delay.

Liverpool John Lennon Airport confirmed that a Ryanair flight that took off from Manchester Airport bound for Arrecife in Lanzarote requested to make an unscheduled landing at 08:45 BST.

It said the plane landed "safely and without incident" seven minutes later.

Jo Hughes told the BBC they were on the flight and described it as an "absolutely horrific experience".

"The bird strike was so loud it scared the whole plane. The passenger in front of me saw it and said it was a big white bird.

"The captain said it was engine two that was affected and although he said it seemed 'happy' it didn't sound happy."

They added: "We were supposed to emergency land back in Manchester but the wind changed and we had to fly around for 45 minutes petrified until Liverpool cleared us to land."

Collisions between birds and planes are a common occurrence in aviation.

People who overheard the plane took to Twitter to find out what had happened.

One tweeted that the "engines sounded really rough" and he "thought it was a speed boat on the Manchester Ship canal at first".

Another replied that it "sounded like a broken turbo prop at 3,000 feet".