A PASSENGER plane flying into Teesside Airport from Spain caused an alert when the captain reported its brakes were overheating.

The Boeing 757 plane from Malaga, with more than 150 passengers on board, eventually landed safely.

Fire crews were put on standby during the alert involving the Airtours plane yesterday afternoon.

Airport spokesman John Waiting said: "A lot of heat is generated by an aircraft's brakes when it lands and the captain in this case quite prudently let us know of a concern, but the problem was relatively minor."

A spokesman for County Durham Fire and Rescue said the call had been a false alarm with good intent.

Earlier in the day the fire service had been put on full emergency alert when a four-seater RAF Dominee jet aircraft reported smoke in the cockpit.

The aircraft was diverted to Teesside Airport from its destination and landed safely.

RAF engineers were examining the cause of the smoke last night.