An aeroplane carrying more than one hundred passengers was forced to abandon its route after it began to run low on fuel.

Turkish Airlines from TK 1997 was set to land at Gatwick on Wednesday afternoon after taking off from Istanbul but was kept in the air due to heavy traffic at the airport.

As the flight continued to circle above Gatwick it burned through precious fuel until it reached “minimum diversion fuel levels”.

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The flight was diverted to Birmingham to refuel for an hour before completing the journey back down to the South.

A spokesman for Turkish Airlines said: “While operating its TK 1997 Istanbul to London (Gatwick) flight with 122 passengers on board, Turkish Airlines Airbus 321 NEO type aircraft with TC-LSN tail code received its landing clearance after a period spent in holding due to the heavy air traffic at the airport.

“Due to aircraft reaching its minimum diversion fuel levels, it diverted to Birmingham. After refueling there for an hour, aircraft departed from Birmingham and landed in London.”