Ryanair passengers were left terrified when their flight was forced to make an emergency landing after the cabin dramatically filled with thick smoke.
The London-bound flight had 169 passengers and 4 crew members on board and was travelling from the Romanian capital Bucharest to Stansted Airport when the incident happened shortly after takeoff on Tuesday.
The aircraft, a Boeing 737-800, declared an emergency and returned to Otopeni airport on Tuesday where passengers disembarked but were otherwise unharmed.
Passengers had originally been scheduled to take the 6.40am flight to London Stansted Airport service but were forced to wait for a replacement aircraft.
A second plane was then prepared, according to reports.
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The flight finally set off at 10.57am local time but just minutes into the flight, the captain declared an emergency and immediately turned back.
According to witnesses, the smoke started to fill the cabin when the plane had climbed to 5,000 feet, and passengers started to panic.
After landing many turned to social media to share their experiences such as Cosmin Malureanu who wrote: "It was a traumatic experience, as soon as I took off everything was filled with smoke. We could not even see two rows in front of us."
They also complained that the crew did little to calm things down.
Cosmin said: "It was very bad, the crew was quiet. We didn’t even see the oxygen masks that should fall in such a condition. It was nothing and I was in real panic.”
In order to stop inhaling the smoke many passengers stuffed scarves or clothing over their mouths to keep out the thick smoke.
The airline arranged the third plane to drive the passengers to the flight to London around 3pm, but 29 people were reportedly so traumatised they refused to travel again.
Bucharest is experiencing sub-zero temperatures and the plane had to be de-iced before it was allowed to take off.
Ryanair said it believes de-icing fluid entering the air conditioning system was to blame for the incident but said an investigation is still ongoing.
A Ryanair spokesperson said: “This flight from Bucharest to London (21 Jan) was delayed due to a minor technical issue with aircraft.
"To minimise the delay, customers boarded a replacement aircraft which was de-iced before it departed to London.
"Shortly after take-off the aircraft returned to Bucharest as a precaution after the cabin crew reported an unidentified smoke in the cabin (which we believe was caused by the de-icing fluid being ingested through the air conditioning system).
"Ryanair sincerely apologised to affected customers for this delay.”
