A plane has been evacuated from Cardiff Airport after a bird got sucked into an engine which then ‘blew up’.

The 10.20am flight to Paris was travelling down the runway when the pilot suddenly slammed on the breaks as a fire engine arrived.

Passengers had to wait until 2pm to board another flight to Charles de Gaulle airport.

Jonny Alcock, 26, told WalesOnline: ‘Everyone was a bit shocked why we had stopped on the middle of the runway and then a fire engine pulled up.

‘An announcement came on saying ‘nobody panic we will get it sorted’ and the pilot said ‘we will be getting everyone off the plane soon’.

‘There was a little bit of panic because no-one really knew what was going on.’

A Cardiff Airport spokeswoman said the plane had experienced a ‘bird strike’ as it was preparing to take off.

She added: ‘Emergency services attended and the aircraft taxied safely to a stand where passengers were offloaded and have now departed on another aircraft.

‘The runway closed for a very short time, however no other flights were affected, the runway re-opened very shortly after and all flights continue to operate as scheduled.

‘The safety and security of our staff and customers remains our number one priority.’

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