Just imagine that you're sitting on a plane after take off and you feel an odd shudder, have a casual look out of the window and see the tyre has burst.

How's that for a perfect way to start your flight nightmare?

Well, that's exactly what happened to the passengers of Flybe flight 1274 from Amsterdam to Manchester.

The plane was forced to divert to Birmingham Airport, where it made an emergency landing. The airport was shut for half an hour due to the incident.

Passenger Suhail Ahmed-Qadri posted pictures of the exploded tyre on Facebook:

He told the BBC the cabin crew "couldn't believe it" when informed.

"We had to circle Birmingham Airport for about an hour to burn fuel before we could land. The runway was shut because of the emergency landing and we could see ambulances and emergency services crews and their flashing lights from up in the sky," he said.

"It was a scary experience and I have mixed feelings about it. A couple behind me were very upset and were crying and hugging. I thought we would make it and that we would be OK."

A spokesman for Flybe told ITV the emergency landing was made as a "precautionary measure to take into consideration more favourable wind conditions".