Passengers on board a flight from Manchester to Portugal 'said the Lord's prayer' during its emergency descent last night.
And following its landing, in a typical British manner, they joked about going to a bar before commenting the landing had been 'better than a ride at Alton Towers'.
The flight to Faro was forced to make an emergency landing in Brest, France, following reports of a fire on board yesterday, January 3.
The Ryanair flight, (FR4052) took off from Manchester airport shortly after 6.30pm and was heading to Faro in Portugal.
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But mid journey, it was forced to make an emergency landing in Brest, in western France, after a technical fault caused the cabin to start smoking.
Patricia Clayton was one of the few people on board the flight last night.
She said that she 'said the Lord's prayer' during the emergency landing, which according to flight analysis sites saw it drop thousands of feet within minutes.
She said: "The crew were first class. The pilots remained totally calm issuing very clear instructions on procedures and the brace position.
"All of the passengers stayed calm although I did recite the Lord's Prayer as we started to plummet to land.
"Nobody moved. We all sat practising the brace position. It sounds odd, but you could have heard a pin drop.
"It was a very frightening experience but passengers afterwards remained calm and joked with each other.
"There was the British spirit once we had made the fast decent.
"People joked 'get that bar open' and that it had been 'better than the black hole ride at Alton Towers.
"Thankfully there was no young children who would have been terrified as I was.
"The Ryanair crew were a credit to the Aviation industry."
Following its landing, travellers sat for 15 to 20 minutes before they were taken into the airport and handed food in a box.
And within three hours, they had been moved onto a replacement London flight to Faro to meet their final destination.
The Boeing 747 aircraft was pictured on the runway with fire crews in attendance after it landed shortly after 8.30pm.
Flight tracking software also suggested that the plane descended rapidly from 41,000ft to 6,725ft in just seven minutes.
Ryanair has since confirmed that a technical fault caused smoke in the cabin.
A Ryanair spokesperson said: “This flight from Manchester to Faro, Jan 3, diverted to Brest Airport as a precaution due to a minor technical issue which caused an unidentified smoke smell in the cabin.
"Passengers disembarked the aircraft as normal and were taken to a secure area in Brest airport where they were provided with refreshments.
"An aircraft from London Stansted was arranged to carry the passengers on the remainder of their journey to Faro, following a delay of under 3 hours.
"Following an inspection of the aircraft by our engineers, the aircraft was released back to service.”
