Thousands of Scottish air passengers have been hit with up to 24 hours of disruptions after an emergency crash landing at Heathrow Airport.

Six flights to and from Glasgow and eight Edinburgh Heathrow were cancelled. A further four flights to and from Aberdeen were also scrapped.

Things were getting back to normal this evening.

It is understood that BA will be putting on extra large planes to deal with any backlog caused by today's incident.

An Edinburgh airport spokesman said: “We’re not anticipating any major issues. It’s been very well managed by BA in terms of organising, rerouting, rescheduling and refunding etc. But in order to minimise any delay or any further backlog BA will be putting on larger aircraft tomorrow.”

A spokesperson for Glasgow airport said: "Three flights from Glasgow to Heathrow were cancelled today. BA will be putting on a larger aircraft this evening from Glasgow and we would hope that normal service resumes as of tomorrow."

BA had been expecting its busiest day of the bank holiday period with 128,000 passengers due to travel.

It had planned to carry more than 463,000 customers over the extended weekend, with 116,000 due to fly on bank holiday Monday.

Passengers have been urged to contact the airline for further advice.

A spokesman for BA said: "We are very sorry for the significant disruption at Heathrow today.

"The closure of one runway means we need to cancel all our short-haul flights in to and out of Heathrow up until 4pm today.

"We understand how frustrating this is for customers and thank them for their patience.

"These cancellations will help us to stabilise our schedule, allowing us to get as many customers away as possible in these difficult circumstances.

"If your flight is cancelled you will be able to re-book or get a refund. If you’re booked through a travel agent, please contact them directly.

"We are committed to ensuring customers are kept fully informed and recommend checking ba.com for the latest information.

"We would ask that you do not come to the airport until you know your flight is operating."

Earlier, the Norway-bound Airbus A319 plane made an emergency landing after eyewitnesses reporting seeing an engine on fire. The 75 passengers and crew were all safely evacuated via the emergency chutes.

London Ambulance service later reported that three people had been treated for minor injuries from the flight, which had taken off from Heathrow for Oslo this morning.

Both the northern and southern runways at Heathrow were closed after the incident, although flights were able to resume shortly afterwards from the southern runway.

Eyewitnesses described seeing smoke coming from the plane, with the right engine on fire.

Clive Cook, who lives on the Heathrow flight path, said: "The actual engine itself was on fire.

"This plane was coming over and suddenly the tone of the engine changed dramatically, and I could almost say it sounded as if it was like a blowout, or an explosion.

"I'm absolutely certain that as it came through the clouds, and I looked up ... the right engine was on fire, it wasn't smoking, it was actually on fire."

Mr Cook said he saw the plane over the Thames at Battersea as he was taking his daughter to nursery.

Another eyewitness, named only as Jamie, was working in his garden near to Stamford Bridge, Chelsea, when he saw the plane.

He said: "All of a sudden we heard this almighty noise. It was like a fire jet going over. We could just see the right engine on fire - it was absolutely horrendous to see.

"You don't see things like that every day, it's incredible really.

"Your thoughts are with the people, if we could hear it that badly then what were the people going through on that plane?"

He said he thought the plane was just a few thousand feet above the ground and added: "It was below the clouds at this stage. To see an aircraft on fire - it wasn't good to watch."

A BA statement said: " BA762, Heathrow to Oslo service, returned back to Heathrow shortly after take-off due to a technical fault. The Airbus A319 aircraft was carrying 75 customers.

"The aircraft landed safely and emergency slides were deployed and we are currently caring for our customers. Emergency services attended the aircraft. We will be carrying out a full investigation into the incident."

There was speculation that the aircraft may have run into a flock of birds but there was no official confirmation of this.

Birdstrikes are a serious problem for aircraft and have been known to bring planes down.

BA said the plane, with two pilots and three cabin crew aboard, had taken off for Oslo at 8.16am and had landed back at Heathrow just after 8.40am.

"The passengers are being looked after at the moment," said a BA spokesman.

The incident is being investigated by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch.

Captain Mark Searle, chairman of airline pilots' association Balpa, said: "This was a professional job done by professional people. As pilots we spend our whole career training to manage incidents such as this in order to avoid an incident becoming a disaster.

"Balpa representatives will be assisting the pilots involved in this incident and providing whatever support they need. And, as always, we will all learn whatever lessons we can."

David Gallagher, who was a passenger on the flight to Oslo, said "big flames" were "very visible" from the cabin.

Mr Gallagher said: "About eight or nine minutes into the flight there was a loud popping sound, not an explosion but definitely not usual sounds.

"There was some concern from passengers - people gasping and louder exclamations.

"The captain came on very calmly, said he was aware of the situation and that everything was running normally and he was going to run some tests to see what the right course would be."

He went on: "Then another five minutes after that there was a loud sound, and this time the right engine was clearly on fire. I mean, big flames, very visible from the rest of the cabin and lots of black smoke.

"There was no disruption to the flight at all, even when it was clear we were down to one engine.

"A few passengers were upset understandably, especially those on the right side of the plane. The cabin crew and the ground crew were outstanding and completely calm, reassuring and professional during the whole incident."

Mr Gallagher, who works in communications and tweeted pictures of the incident, joked: "I will definitely pay attention to the (safety) briefings from now on."

Both runways were open by around 11am but passengers experienced cancellations and long delays.

Heathrow chief operating officer Normand Boivin said: "Heathrow is now fully operational and the airport is returning to normal. All passengers and crew were safely evacuated from the aircraft. BA is currently caring for its customers.

"The temporary closure will result in a number of cancelled flights throughout the day and passengers are advised to check the status of their flight with their airline before travelling to the airport."

He went on: "I would like to pay tribute to BA's pilots and Heathrow's fire and airside teams. In particular, I'd like to thank this morning's airport duty manager Mark Freeman and his team for their quick and professional response to today's incident."

BA said: "We have begun a full investigation into the incident and are working with the Air Accidents Investigation Branch to establish the cause."