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A flight to Egypt was grounded after a flock of seagulls flew into the plane's engine.

The aeroplane - travelling from Cardiff Airport - had to be diverted to Gatwick after the crew detected a smell like 'roast chicken'.

Passengers on board the Thomson Airways flight to Sharm El Sheikh said they were told an hour into their journey they were being grounded.

Diverted: The Thomson flight was travelling to Egypt from Cardiff

Cardiff PR director Dan Tyte said the flight left Cardiff at approximately 9am.

'It was a relaxing start to the morning,' he said.

'We got on the flight and it must have been about an hour in and the captain came on and said "I don't know if you can smell what seems to be like roast chicken, we have looked into it and turns out as we were leaving Cardiff, some seagulls flew into the engine".'

Mr Tyte, who was travelling to Egypt for a week-long holiday with his girlfriend Rebecca, said the aircraft was near the Swiss city of Basel when the announcement was made.

Take-off: The plane left Cardiff Airport en route for Egypt when it was diverted to Gatwick

'From that it seems like it was quite a dramatic situation but it was handled with such calm assurance by the captain and his crew - everyone handled it well,' he said.

A spokesman from Thomson said the diversion was a precautionary measure and passengers continued their trip on an alternative aircraft.

'We would like to reassure customers that issues of this nature are very rare.'