Passengers have described their plane 'nose-diving' towards Norwich Airport after a full emergency was declared on a KLM flight to Schipol.

The KL1530 flight from Teeside declared the emergency at 9.40am and was diverted to Norwich while fire and ambulance services attended on standby.

Jay Wilson, from Teeside, was catching a connection to Denmark as an offshore worker and said the flight had been in the air for 25 minutes before it was clear something was wrong.

'We noticed there had been no tea or coffee around,' said the 37-year-old. 'We got an announcement which said we would have to land in Norwich because there was some trouble with the air quality.

'Both the air hostesses were feeling dizzy.

'It was a nose-dive into Norwich and we landed so fast people's tablets were falling off their laps. Everyone was quite scared and nervous when we landed because there were fire engines outside and we didn't know what was happening. 'People's safety is paramount and I would much rather the pilot landed safely.'

The flight had 44 people on board plus four crew.

Mr Wilson said passengers are being booked on new flights, but he will now arrive in Amsterdam almost 12 hours later than scheduled and will miss his connection to Denmark.

Another offshore worker, he said, will miss their boat in the morning.

'At some point there will have to be compensation for lost earnings,' he said.

Landing safely at 9.55am, the aircraft will now be fully checked over, but the captain did not call for assistance.

Emergency services were stood down at 10am.

KLM have been contacted for comment.