Iron Maiden's lead singer Bruce Dickinson piloted two of the rescue flights sent to bring stranded XL customers home to the UK.

As well as regularly inviting heavy metal fans to Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter and to Run to the Hills, the singer is a qualified commercial pilot and flew to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt and the Greek island of Kos to help bring back holidaymakers.

Dickinson, 50, qualified as a pilot in the 1990s and went on to work for Astraeus, a charter company which no longer operates scheduled services but leases its aircraft out across the world.

A spokesman for Astraeus said Dickinson had been employed as a full-time member of staff for the last seven years and regularly piloted planes to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

"The roster meant that Bruce Dickinson was on holiday when this was going on," the spokesman said. "After XL went bump it just so happened that Bruce, being on holiday, was available and other cabin crew were brought in as well for the flight."

Iron Maiden tours in its own Boeing 757, named Ed Force One after the band's mascot Eddie, and piloted by Dickinson.