Plane in emergency landing

A pilot was forced to make an emergency landing after the cockpit of his plane started to fill with smoke.

The pilot contacted air traffic control at Newcastle Airport on Thursday morning and reported smoke in the cockpit and a possible fire.

The Scandinavian Air Services flight was travelling to Manchester from Copenhagen when it made the emergency landing at Newcastle at 0950 GMT.

The MacDonnell Douglas 80 plane, which was carrying 51 passengers and six crew, was given immediate clearance to land.

The passengers were taken off the plane and the airport's customer services team organised coaches for them to travel to Manchester Airport.

The cause of the smoke has not yet been established. Engineers are at the airport carrying out investigations.