Faulty maintenance led a holiday jet to make an emergency descent from 30,000ft, an air accident report today revealed.

Passengers became "confused, distressed and highly anxious" as they struggled to don oxygen masks as cabin pressure failed.

Many on board the Airtours Airbus 320 flying from Gatwick to Majorca suffered ear pain and some had chest pains.

Two people vomited while others were in tears or showing signs of panic as passengers had to contend with an in-cabin air equivalent of being at a height of 14,000ft.

According to the report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), some passengers said their masks did not work properly, others had trouble getting them on and a few thought they were dirty or dusty.

Twelve of the 176 passengers on board considered cabin crew members, who also experienced difficulties with the masks, had failed to offer adequate assistance.

Eventually the passengers, who had already been delayed for 15 hours, landed safely at Gatwick following the incident over the English Channel on June 10, 2000.

Questionnaires were sent to the 144 adult passengers and 106 replied. A number expressed concern that the first signs of trouble were when the oxygen masks were deployed.

In its report the AAIB said an early public address announcement to reassure passengers would have helped.

It stated that the plane had an air conditioning problem on an earlier positioning flight from Manchester that led to the loss of pressure.