A Jet2 flight heading to Glasgow Airport from Faro, Portugal, was forced into a 500-mile diversion to Alicante-Elche Airport.

“Our flight from Faro to Glasgow followed standard procedure following a minor fault indication yesterday (June 12) and diverted to Alicante Airport.

“Our teams worked extremely hard to look after customers and we are pleased to report that customers arrived back in Glasgow this morning (June 13).

“We do of course apologise for any inconvenience,” said a Jet2 spokesperson.

The aircraft had just passed A Coruña in the north of Spain –  one hour into the flight to Glasgow – when it was forced to make the diversion to Alicante.

Flight tracking site FlightRadar24 show the plane performing a U-turn in mid-air, just over an hour into the flight as it passed A Coruña in the north of Spain, before the flight then travelled across the country and over Madrid onto Alicante.

Flight LS174 landed at Alicante Airport around 12.35pm, around one hour and a half after turning round off the coast of Galicia, after a detour of 530 miles.

Jet2 confirmed the pilot was forced to make the diversion ‘following a minor fault’.