A Ryanair flight on its way to Morocco circled in the air for almost an hour before landing back in Manchester after a technical issue that prevented it from leaving the UK was discovered.

Flight RK1266 took off from Manchester Airport just after 4pm on Sunday, 16 March, on its way to Agadir, Morocco, but did it not make it far from the city when it started to circle multiple times.

The Boeing 737 flew to Wigan where it then circled the air around the town as well as the Merseyside area down to St Helens about seven or eight times, before flying back to the airport and landing around 5pm, data from FlightRadar shows.

The plane, which was due to fly a three-and-a-half journey to the Moroccan city never left the UK in the hour it was in the air.

Upon arrival back at Manchester Airport, the plane was met by fire crews on the runway.

Passengers were offered a replacement aircraft after returning to Manchester, which landed in Agadir at 10.30pm that evening.

A spokesperson for Ryanair told The Independent: “This flight from Manchester to Agadir (Sun, 16 Mar) returned to Manchester shortly after take-off due to a minor technical issue.

“The aircraft landed normally at Manchester Airport and passengers disembarked.

“To minimise disruption to affected passengers, we quickly arranged for a replacement aircraft to operate this flight, which departed to Agadir at 7.05pm local [time] that same day.

“We sincerely apologise to affected passengers for any inconvenience caused.”

This incident comes a week after a Ryanair flight from Malaga to Manchester on had to make a diversion to Bilbao due to a medical emergency – with passengers ended up spending the night in the Spanish city as air traffic controllers went home before the plane could take off again.

After the unwell passenger was taken off the plane, the aircraft was refuelled and prepared to continue to Manchester, however, due to the flight plan “exceeding operational hours”, the plane could not depart from the airport.

Passengers had to board a flight the following day to complete the journey.

Another Ryanair flight had to make an emergency stop in Brest, France while travelling to Bournemouth from Gran Canaria after a passenger experienced a suspected heart attack.

This incident, on 10 March, was able to continue its journey an hour later after the woman was transported off the plane to hospital for further treatment.

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