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A landmark transatlantic flight was cancelled in farcical scenes after a ceremonial water cannon salute went horribly wrong and the jet was doused in thick foam.

The salute was meant to mark the first Virgin Atlantic flight VA109 from Manchester to Atlanta, Georgia, but excited passengers now face the night in a hotel after the flight was scrapped.

The water cannon salute is a traditional celebration for the maiden voyage of a route but airport fire crews accidentally sprayed the Airbus 330-300 with foam instead.

The error means the plane now has to undergo a thorough safety check to make sure the foam hasn't damaged the jet engines or turbine blades.

A Virgin Atlantic spokeswoman told the Mirror the flight to the US - scheduled for 10.35am and later delayed until 3pm - will now leave tomorrow and passengers have been put up in hotels.

She said: "It's an unfortunate error but safety comes first and we now need to check there wasn't any damage to the plane.

"Customers have been offered overnight accommodation in hotels nearby and we should have them on another flight tomorrow."

Passengers took to Twitter to vent their frustrations.

Beth Harper said: "Love it when we're delayed because the celebrations for virgin atlantics (sic) first flight from Atlanta to manchester gets out of hand.

"Love it even more when they keep delaying us by 30 minutes every effing 30 minutes. Proper helpful."

Joel Bradley said: "Should be sat in Orlando.

"Instead sat in a hotel room in Manchester @VirginAtlantic."

A Manchester Airport spokeswoman said: "We apologise for the resulting delay to the flight departure. We continue to work closely with Virgin Atlantic to rectify the situation as soon as possible.