Terrified passengers adopted the ‘brace’ position as their flight was forced into an emergency landing over fears of a fire on board.
One woman revealed she “said the Lord’s Prayer” as the plane descended thousands of feet in a matter of minutes.
She today praised Ryanair’s staff for the way they handled the situation after the flight landed safely.
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The plane was travelling from Manchester to Portugal last night when the pilot diverted to an airport in western France amid safety concerns.
Patricia Clayton was on board the flight, which departed at 6.30pm.
She told the Manchester Evening News : “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 descent.
“People joked 'get that bar open' and that it had been 'better than the black hole ride at Alton Towers.
“Thankfully there were no young children who would have been terrified as I was.
“The Ryanair crew were a credit to the aviation industry.”
After landing in Brest, travellers sat for 15 to 20 minutes before they were taken into the airport and handed food.
And within three hours, they had been moved onto a replacement London flight to Faro.
The Boeing 747 aircraft was pictured on the runway with fire crews in attendance after it landed shortly after 8.30pm.
Flight tracking software suggested it descended 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, January 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 three hours.
“Following an inspection of the aircraft by our engineers, the aircraft was released back to service.”
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