British Airways Jet Makes Emergency Landing At Heathrow

The Airbus A319, which was carrying 75 passengers on its journey to Oslo, was forced to return to Heathrow Airport today after smoke poured from the engine mid-air. 

Dramatic footage from the scene shows smoke billowing from the plane while it is still in the air and eyewitness have described hearing 'a blowout' and seeing one of the engines on fire as it flew overhead.

Speculation has emerged that the plane had run into a 'bird strike', although there has been no official confirmation of this. A Heathrow spokesman said all of the passengers have been 'safely evacuated' and 'accounted for'. The spokesman said the airport itself remained open, despite the closure of the runways following the incident at about 9am today.

Officials have ruled out a terror attack and investigators are now looking into the possibility of a bird strike shortly after take-off. Emergency vehicles surrounded the plane and emergency chutes could be seen being deployed after it landed.

Eye witness Clive Cook, who lives on the Heathrow flight path, described seeing smoke billowing from the plane, with the right engine on fire. He told Sky News: 'The actual engine itself was on fire.