Fifteen passengers were injured during an emergency landing of a Virgin Atlantic flight at Gatwick Airport yesterday.

The Virgin Atlantic flight VS27 to Orlando, which was carrying 299 passengers, had reached 20,000 feet when a technical problem resulting in a fire in the hold, forced the plane to turn around and make an emergency landing at Gatwick Airport.

The captain evacuated the Airbus 330-300 plane as a precautionary measure after the plane had touched down on the runway.

Rescue services arrived at the scene, while the fire was distinguished by an onboard fire extinguisher, according to reports.

Sir Richard Branson, President of Virgin Atlantic tweeted: “Very sorry to all passengers on board VS27, the staff @virginatlantic are doing everything they can to look after everybody.”

The Airbus 330 aircraft blocked the runway for an hour which resulted in 26 incoming flights being diverted to Stansted and delays to departing aircraft to be delayed. Nine flights were cancelled.

Gatwick Airport, which was closed for nearly two hours due to the incident, has experienced some delays this morning as a result of the incident.