Terror in the air as plane cabin fills with smoke

A passenger on board a plane which was forced to make an emergency landing has described the "hair-raising" moment the cabin began to fill with smoke.

Shayne Krige was one of 46 passengers on board the Flybe flight from Paris to Cardiff which had to put down at Gatwick. The 36-year-old lawyer held hands with his wife as smoke gathered in the roof of the cabin 20 minutes before the forced landing. He said there were no individual oxygen masks but a steward went up and down the aisle offering air from a bottle. Most passengers remained calm as the smoke thickened. Mr Krige said: "I could see there was smoke in the cabin. It started collecting along the roof and seemed to be getting thicker. The steward put on a mask and started walking down the aisle to find out where there might be a fire. One person started to panic but everyone else was calm." Gatwick, Britain's busiest holiday airport, was briefly closed to flights. All the passengers disembarked from the Dash 8 aircraft without incident following emergency procedures.