A plane has been forced to make an emergency landing at East Midlands Airport after being diverted from Birmingham Airport due to a minor technical fault.

A spokesman for the airport confirmed that the First Choice flight, which was travelling from Barbados, landed safely after being at 05:40 GMT following the diversion.

In a statement, the airline said: “The flight, TOM831, landed as normal and was checked at East Midlands Airport before being cleared to proceed to Birmingham.

“The safety of passengers and crew is our number one priority and incidents such as this are very rare.”