UK-bound plane makes emergency landing after passengers smell smoke on board

An EasyJet flight bound for Bristol was forced to make an emergency landing after passengers smelled smoke on board on Saturday night.

Just an hour and 20 minutes after leaving Cyprus, the pilot was forced to divert the plane and land in Turkey.

A spokesperson for EasyJet told MailOnline: ‘We can confirm that flight EZY2902 from Paphos to Bristol diverted to Izmir due to a technical issue which resulted in a smoke smell onboard.

‘The aircraft landed safely in Izmir and was met by emergency services as a routine and precautionary measure only.

‘All passengers disembarked as normal into the terminal. They will continue to Bristol on a replacement aircraft later today.

This comes after an EasyJet pilot was suspended after he flew a plane packed with 190 people so dangerously close to a mountain that he nearly crashed into it.

Captain Paul Elsworth was temporarily banned from flying after his plane flew too close over a mountain range as it travelled to Egypt on February 2, triggering a Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) alarm in the cockpit.

The plane, travelling from Manchester to the Red Sea resort of Hurghada, was very close to crashing as it descended for landing and could have potentially killed the 190 passengers and crew on board.

The alert rang out ‘pull up, terrain, terrain, pull up, pull up, terrain ahead, pull up’, and only a last-second manoeuvre by the pilot to pull up the joystick levelled the Airbus A320 and avoided the mountain range.

Pilots normally clear the mountain range at an altitude of 6 000ft (1 828m). Mr Elsworth allegedly flew over the 2 329ft (710m) peak at 3100ft (945m). DailyMail

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