A passenger plane bound for a Scottish airport was last night forced to make an emergency landing after a mid-air alert.

The Jet2 flight EXS776 / LS776 was travelling from Alicante in Spain to Edinburgh when it signalled the alarm shortly before 9.30pm on Sunday.

It declared a ‘Squawk 7700’ while flying north towards Scotland around two hours after taking off at 7.33pm.

 

An emergency squawk is used to identify an aircraft that has a possible issue and enables it to have priority over other air traffic.

Jet2 has since confirmed to The Herald that the alarm was raised after a passenger required medical attention.

Footage from flight radar app Plane Finder showed the plane did not make it to Edinburgh, instead making a rapid emergency descent into Manchester.

It landed at around 9.37pm.