Jet in Gatwick Emergency Landing

Nearly 300 passengers and 13 crew on board the Virgin Atlantic Airways flight were evacuated via emergency slides after it ditched safely on the runway.

The plane had left the West Sussex airport at 10:48am and was bound for Orlando, Florida, when it had to return to land at 12:30pm.

West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service said it was called at 12.21pm to reports of a “small fire on board an aircraft”, which had made a full emergency landing.

A spokeswoman said six fire engines were called to the scene.

Virgin Atlantic said later that there were “four minor injuries” in the incident.

Liam Moore, a passenger on the US-bound flight, said everybody was “really shaken up”.

He said: “We were on the plane and everything seemed fine.

“Then the pilot came on the tannoy about ten minutes into the flight and said we would have to do an emergency landing.