A passenger on board a Flybe flight which made an emergency landing said they were ’traumatised’ by the incident.

The flight, BE817, left Manchester bound for Ronaldsway at just after 2.20pm on Wednesday.

It had been in the air for only a few minutes when the captain detected the fault which caused him to switch off one of the engines and return to Manchester.

The Dash 8 aircraft was shown on the website Flight Radar 24 to have made it to the Crosby coast area of Merseyside before it turned back less than 10 minutes after take off.

A passenger who contacted the Courier said: ’Flying back from Manchester there was a loud bang followed by a smoke filled cabin. We had to divert back to Manchester on only one engine.

’The Flybe cabin crew and pilots [were] brilliant. I’m feeling a bit traumatised’.

The plane landed back at Manchester Airport at just after 2.45pm, after just 23 minutes in the air.

A Flybe spokesman confirmed that the flight landed safely at Manchester Airport having returned following a technical fault shortly after take-off that ’resulted in the captain following standard procedures and electing to shut down one of the engines as a safety precaution’.

He added: ’The aircraft landed without further incident. As is standard procedure, the aircraft was met by the airport’s emergency service vehicles. All 38 passengers disembarked as normal when the aircraft arrived and will be re-accommodated on the next available flight.

’The safety of its passengers and crew is the airline’s number one priority and Flybe apologises for any inconvenience experienced.’