"A puff of smoke and the smell of burning." Plane spotters describe dramatic emergency landing at Manchester Airport

A Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul carried out a dramatic emergency landing at Manchester Airport today. Plane-spotters described a smell of burning and a puff of smoke moments after it touched down.

The captain of the A330 jet, which carries up to 277 passengers, aborted their first landing attempt and performed a 'go-around'. On it's second approach, an emergency was declared and fire trucks were on hand as flight TK 1995 finally touched down.

The aircraft appeared to land normally but after it turned off the runway and taxied towards the terminal, plane-spotters at the nearby viewing park described a puff of smoke and the smell of burning.

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It is understood the pilot turned off the engines and the aircraft remained in situ for a further 24 minutes. It was decided to use a tug to tow the aircraft to the stand at the terminal.

The drama happened following a four-hour flight from Istanbul, with the jet landing at about 4.35pm. After the first aborted landing, the plane maintained a holding pattern over Derbyshire and Cheshire before touching down. It finally arrived at the stand and the passengers were disembarked at 5.21pm.

Plane-spotter Stephen Uden, 50, from Horwich, told the Manchester Evening News it was 'unusual' even for an emergency landing. He added: "The plane turned off the runway and then there was a puff of smoke. The plane then just stopped. There were fire engines front and back. They were trying to work out if it had hot brakes or hot wheels. After a short while they towed it back to the terminal. It wasn't able to do that under its own steam."

Another plane-spotter, Liam Smith, described six fire engines on the scene, and added he could smell 'burning' after the plane touched down.

Tonight a spokesman for Manchester Airport confirmed the jet had been assessed and a 'minor hydraulic issue' was behind the emergency landing. He stressed that all the passengers disembarked without issue and went on that, although it was an emergency landing, 'there was never a suggestion of any danger' and the procedure was a matter of routine.

It is understood the aircraft's subsequent flight was cancelled to allow engineers more time to examine the hydraulics.

Turkish Airlines has been approached for a comment.