A Ryanair flight was forced to spend an hour circling Manchester airport after striking a bird on take off.
The plane was heading to Palma in Mallorca when the pilot had to loop the airport nine times to burn fuel before abandoning the journey and returning to Manchester.
One passenger claimed she 'felt like the plane was going to crash' because it was 'shaking a lot and flying on its side'.
Spanish-bound flight FR3445 declared the midair emergency just after 5pm and began circling at 3,500ft.
Looping around Manchester, passengers claim staff on the flight had asked if they had seen 'anything weird on the wing'.
Speaking to the Mirror, Lauren Albrighton, 18, who was travelling to Magaluf to work for six months, said the plane began to shake shortly after take off.
She said: '[The cabin crew] just said there was something wrong with the engine. They kept asking people 'did you see anything weird on the wing?'
'There were a few people panicking. It was like we were flying in a really bad storm - but there wasn't a storm. It just felt like the plane was going to crash - it was on its side a lot.'
Another passenger Jac Lee, said it was the 'most serious' issue he had experienced on a flight.
He said: 'There were quite serious vibrations on take off and we never seemed to gain much height, so I knew something was wrong very early on.'
The aircraft later landed at Manchester at 6.02pm and passengers were transferred to another plane for take off at 9.15pm.
A Ryanair spokeswoman said: 'This flight from Manchester to Palma returned to Manchester shortly after take-off following a minor bird strike.
'The aircraft landed normally and customers disembarked and were provided with refreshment vouchers.
'To minimise delay, customers boarded a replacement aircraft which departed to Palma. Ryanair apologised to affected customers for any inconvenience caused.'
(culled from www.dailymail.co.uk)
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