A passenger jet was forced to make an emergency landing at Gatwick last night when its engine overheated.

Brittania flight BY241A, a Boeing 767 carrying 282 people and nine crew members, was on its way from Manchester to Mahon, Minorca, when it was diverted.

The plane was met by airport fire crews as a precaution, although there were no reports of a blaze on board.

Fire experts then began preliminary investigations into how the plane could have overheated.

The passengers were led off the plane into the south terminal where they waited as airport staff organised a replacement flight.

No one was injured.

The new flight, staffed by another crew, left Gatwick for Mahon at 8.15pm, five hours after their initial flight landed.

A spokeswoman for Brittania said: "Our engineers are working out exactly what went wrong with the plane.

"When the pilot realised there was a problem, he radioed ahead and from that moment everything went very smoothly and according to procedure.

"There is nothing whatsoever to indicate that it might be an ongoing problem."

The spokeswoman said all the passengers were happy to take the replacement flight.