A NORTH-East man told last night how his flight home became a terrifying ordeal after the plane caught fire and was forced to make an emergency landing.

The British Airways service from Birmingham to Newcastle, had only been in the air for a matter of minutes when passengers spotted a fire blazing in the right engine.

Nick Tzamarias, 39, of Blackhill, Consett, County Durham, was one of the 29 passengers on board.

"It was a terrifying experience," he said. "We saw sparks flying out of the engine, then it just burst into flames.

"The cabin started filling up with smoke and we thought that we were going to die. The stewardess gave us wet towels to put over our faces and told us to put our heads between our knees, in the crash position.

"We were so frightened, but the stewardess was totally in control of the situation and helped keep everybody calm."

The pilot turned off the engine and managed to extinguish the flames, then made an emergency landing at Manchester Airport.

No one was hurt in the incident and BA provided all the passengers with taxis to take them to the North-East.

The ATR 42 plane was operated by Titan Airways on behalf of BA. It had been scheduled to take off at 7pm on Wednesday, but was delayed for 20 minutes.

A BA spokesman said last night: "Engineers from Titan are inspecting the engine to find out what the fault was."

He added: "The captain immediately shut the engine down as a precaution and diverted to Manchester.

"The safety of our passengers is our primary concern and will not be compromised."

Mr Tzamarias had been to Birmingham with work colleague Cath Rafferty, who also lives in Blackhill.

The pair, both Information Technology (IT) officers at Derwentside District Council, had been attending the national e-government innovation awards, after the council was shortlisted. The authority is also in line for beacon status for its IT work.

"We didn't win the main award, but we are happy to be alive," he said.